


La Magra's Favored Sons

by WampusRoar13



Category: Blade (Movie Series)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:54:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25264939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WampusRoar13/pseuds/WampusRoar13
Summary: King's backstory isn't what he led the hunters to believe. After they lose the final battle, he's left to confront a mating bond that he tried to ignore and protect his daughter alone. But, maybe he doesn't have to be as alone as he thinks and feels.
Relationships: Deacon Frost/Original Female Character, Drake/Hannibal King
Comments: 16
Kudos: 59





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Azera](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azera/gifts).



> This is an old story! So old! The oldest! I think I wrote this in middle school. A few years ago my account was hacked and I lost a lot of work to deleting that I didn't do. This was one of the stories that survived the slaughter and, since it had a fan, I decided to reformat it and post it.

King woke up with that damn Pomeranian licking his face and chains binding him to the ground yet again, but this time the only voice he heard was Jarko’s deep gravelly chuckle. He shooed the dog away and forced himself to get up, looking around for any others, finding that he was indeed alone with the overgrown animal lover with a sadistic side toward his enemies. There was no need to ask what had happened.

“How the fuck did you get off your leash!” He demanded, but Danica had made sure when she chained him back up after the battle that it would be difficult for him to ‘use his god damn smart mouth’. Almost cracking his jaw couldn’t completely stop him though.

“We’re going to pretend, because I have such good humor, that you were talking to Fluffy.”

“I suppose I should have expected a dumb fuck name like that from you!”

Jarko laughed and began to move forward, “Drake wants to see you. He has the girl and she’s under his protection.”

“What about Abby and Blade?”

The blonde began to pull King up roughly, the dog running around the small cell in excitement, and, as further proof that neither of the Talos siblings were around, he didn’t strike King, “The king has made sure that Abby will receive proper burials; I believe he plans to let you and the girl attend, but don’t hold me to that. Blade escaped and ran.”

King was silent for a moment, trying to fight back the tears. They had lost, the virus had been destroyed and all it’s research with it, and Blade was gone. Now it was just him and Zoe; he had to be strong for her and try to make sure she stayed alive. No matter the cost. He could feel himself shaking and was surprised when Jarko moved to drop the chains then shut the door in front of them.

“Let it go now, little brother. If either of them see your hurt, it will be the end of you, and her, despite the king’s protection,” Jarko told him. 

King looked at the man for a moment, tears filling his eyes before he collapsed into the vampire’s embrace. Despite the blonde’s attitude when Danica or Asher were present, the vampire had taken care of King, sneaking him blood and helping him, the first time he’d been turned… Well, at least when he’d been brought back to their hideout by the crazy siblings. 

Of course, if anyone asked the vampire he would deny it, but after King had taken the cure and Zoe had been born as the product one drunk night, Jarko had cornered them and demanded to be introduced to his ‘niece’. King had been set out to kill all those of the Talos line and any weak vampire he could find, but he’d always planned to protect the animal lover.

Once King had cried himself out Jarko pulled him up again and they headed for the door. As they headed for the stairs King tensed and it did not go unnoticed by his ex-brother, who immediately took a detour to the elevator. He spotted the conference room through the surrounding glass, it was being cleaned, and Danica appeared to be in charge. All the bodies seemed to have been removed from the premises; King had no doubt that was Asher’s doing.

“You still shoved up the pretentious ass’ backside?” King asked as they arrived at the top floor.

Jarko laughed, “I never did understand how you were able to be so contradictory to Danica. Asher’s my sire and I couldn’t defy him, unless it was to help my king.”

“It’s a bit more complicated than you were ever privy to understanding.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” the blonde said as he knocked on the door at the end of the hall, the last of four doors on the whole corridor.

“ _ Come in _ ,” Drake’s unmistakable voice called to them.

The door opened and the dog took off into the room first and King relaxed as he heard his daughter squeal happily, “FLUFFY!!!!”

She picked up the dog, which started to lick her face, and King looked at Jarko, “That thing draws fang it’ll drop thirty stories. So help me, God, I’ll find a fucking way!”

“Daddy!” Zoe shouted and suddenly she was jumping in his arms. Despite the fact that he was sure to have a few broken ribs, he bent down to catch her and picked her up so that she was held close to his chest. The god damn Pomeranian started to attack King’s pant leg viciously, obviously offended that his play mate had abandoned him for the other human.

“Jarko, I’ve allowed that thing to live because it seems to amuse Zoe so much,” came Drake’s voice and King immediately zeroed in on him, lying on the bed with an open dress shirt on and cargo pants. He tried very hard not to be attracted to the vampire, but he wasn’t blind, and so he just wrote it off as a natural reaction.

“Regardless, my patience is thin now, and if you don’t get it out of here, it won’t last very long,” he finished with a hiss and Zoe proceeded to lose her top, kicking away from King to try and get to the little creature, tears evident in her voice.

“No, not Fluffy! He’s just playing and he’s just a puppy,” She all but screamed in her hysterics, picking up the little creature and then looking back at Drake. Hannibal just about died of shock as he saw the king of fucking vampires melt for a little girl.

“Alright Zoe, he won’t get hurt, but he does have to go now,” Drake said. 

Zoe nodded and handed the dog over to Jarko, who offered his niece a small smile and a ruffle of her hair.

“Do I still get a kitty?” Zoe asked as Jarko turned to head for the door.

Again he smiled at her, “Of course Brat, we’ll pick out one in a couple of days.”

King was about to let a string of curses and objections fly, but seeing his little girl so excited made him stop and glare at the back of Jarko’s head. He jumped however when a deep voice called to the blonde from right behind him. He needed the original vampire to back up.

“Send a doctor to look at King’s injuries.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Once the blonde vampire was gone, King turned to face the first vampire, his hand that was holding Zoe’s grasp a little tighter. Drake seemed to read this movement and grabbed his other hand, pulling him toward the bed quickly, never breaking eye contact in case King was to move to flee. It was a moot point, however, because King was too busy trying to recall every story he’d heard about the vampire during childhood so that he could think of a way out of this entirely fucked up situation.

“Don’t be afraid of me, I could never harm you,” Drake said to him as he pushed the young man down onto his bed. He was not surprised that Zoe stayed standing, trying to gage her position between the two men, “Zoe, why don’t you go and get a movie to watch?”

“Okay!” She said as she took off across the hall.

King tried to bolt up but was held down by Drake, “Do not move or you will injure yourself further. Her room is directly across the hall and I could hear if anyone else was on this floor. It is just us, so she is perfectly safe.”

“She is being held prisoner in a vampire fortress; that is not perfectly safe.”

“I would never allow a child to be harmed if I were around,” Drake said, “Your child I would die for.”

“What do you want from me?”

“You’ve known the answer to that from the moment we saw one another in the doctor’s office.”

“So much for not hurting me.”

Drake hummed, sitting before him on the bed and hands taking too many liberties with King’s thighs, “You were resisting me. Taking you out of the fight was my only option.”

King snorted.

They stared at each other for a few minutes, appraising the other in the pregnant silence. Gold eyes studied him and King was especially proud when he felt the predator trying to probe past his shield, trying to engage with the mating bond that had slammed open in that office, but who only failed. At least that meant that his secrets were safe from the other man, until he figured out what game they were going to be playing long term.

The King of Vampires’ head tilted to the side and he purred, “How do you do that? I’ve never met a human that can shield from a mating bond.”

“I’m special.”

“Obviously,” Drake gave him a quick once over, before deciding to return to his original inquiry, “I want you, all of you, everything.”

“Why me?”

“You are my mate. That makes Zoe my daughter. I know that it is hard for you to accept, and we will discuss your first time as a vampire, but do not try to fight it, to fight me,” Drake seemed to be approaching this as gently as he could, but King wasn’t sure if he was successful, “I know that Danica was not a good experience but it will be a very different experience with me as your sire.”

Looking into those eyes Hannibal almost let his anger fly and spilt his entire life story, but realizing what he was about to do he looked away and buried those memories deep,  _ deep _ , down below his shield. What right did this man have to come barrelling in and proclaim himself to be King’s next sire? As if he could ever compare.

When he felt someone strum along his shield once more, a small part of him snapped,.“You are not going in my head! I’m not becoming a vampire again! And I most certainly am not your mate, nor is she your daughter!”

Drake sighed, “My love, I know this is hard for you, and I do not expect you to accept this all at once. I will  _ never  _ force you to do something you do not want to do. I will never enter your head without permission, or delve deeper than you would permit. I will earn your trust and make you want to be mine, but one thing I cannot allow is for there to be others; at least not until you have given yourself fully to me.”

Before King could even begin to process what the vampire had just said, Zoe was running back in with her movie, Aladdin. Jarko arrived back with the doctor, Asher on his heels this time, and Zoe quickly moved away from the man. Hannibal had taught his daughter to stay away from Danica and Asher, and Jarko when anyone else was around.

“What do you want, Asher?” Hannibal was shocked to hear Drake growl at the other vampire as he picked up Zoe.

“My lord, Danica would like to know when her toy will be released?” Asher said with all the bravo of a laughing hyena, but when Drake snarled viciously he backed down like one as well.

“If you  _ ever  _ refer to my mate that way again, I will make your life hell! Now take your childe and leave or I will crucify you both!”

Asher scrambled away and Jarko followed him, although at a slower pace. The doctor remained still as Drake was still hissing threateningly and Zoe‘s whimpers seemed to fall on deaf ears. Trying to convince himself that he was only concerned for the welfare of his child, who was still cradled in the furious vampire’s arms, King stepped forward.

He reached out and rubbed Drake’s arm soothingly. Once the vampire had turned to face him, he noted that most of the anger seemed to die off, “Calm down, you’re scaring Zoe.”

Drake placed the young girl on the bed, and then pushed King to lie down as well, before he signaled for the doctor to join them. It took fifteen minutes and several curses for Hannibal’s examination to be finished. He was confined to the bed, not including the bathroom, for two weeks. After that he would only be allowed to move around provided that he didn’t use the stairs and that his ribs remained bandaged. 

This required several more curses, which luckily Zoe didn’t hear because she was setting up her movie, along with the help of Fluffy. Apparently Jarko had forgotten the animal and Zoe was paranoid about Drake hurting him, so she was guarding the dumb creature with her life. He’d have loved nothing more than to make quite clear that it wasn’t the original vampire his daughter needed to be worried about. Hell spawn mutt.

“Are you ready Zoe?”

“Yep,” She said as she came over to the bed with Fluffy under one arm and the remote in her other hand. 

King had been propped back against the pillows, his dirty and bloody attire traded in for sleeping pants and bandages around his ribcage. He tried very hard not to tense when Drake laid down beside him on the bed and placed an arm around him, leaving enough room for Zoe to sit between them with the furry abomination. His heart was ice, he felt nothing at the gesture.

As the movie played King pondered many things. He could not help but wonder what Danica hoped to accomplish by lying to Drake about their past and he wondered how long he could keep it a secret. Drake had promised not to enter his mind without permission, but that was only a temporary fix. Eventually it would come out, one way or another.

That was something that the previous vampire and vampire hunter would never be ready for.

Zoe fell asleep right after Prince Ali came into town, but they continued to watch. King almost thought it endearing that Drake found a movie, which was now considered old, to be so fascinating. He was looking at the vampire when ‘A Whole New World’ was playing and was caught off guard when he was suddenly looking into glowing amber eyes. He did not have to be a mind reader to understand the connection Drake had made to them and the song.

He glanced away and they finished watching the movie together, Zoe waking up near the end, refusing to admit to having fallen asleep. Once the movie was finished, the little girl moved to curl up in their bed, Drake’s bed, but Hannibal set out to move her to what she was already referring to as ‘her’ room. There was no good way to feel about her having the same intuitive sense that he did.

There was no way out of this.

“No,” Drake said as King moved to pick the little girl up, “You’re not supposed to be out of bed, but if you insist on ‘tucking her in’ the least you can do it let me carry her.”

King was ready to protest but Zoe was already moving into Drake’s waiting arms and he decided that it wasn’t worth the pain it would cause his chest. Fluffy woke up at their movements and moved to follow his new friend, although Hannibal wasn’t sure how he felt about that and Drake seemed to notice. What if the beast got hungry during the night?

“Fluffy, go find Jarko,” he said and then continued walking. The dog, however, just kept trailing along behind him and when he noticed this he released a fierce growl. Fluffy went running to the stairs and disappeared down them, causing Zoe to glare at Drake.

She got her dirty look from him.

“He’s just a puppy!” she maintained her argument from earlier.

“Zoe, I didn’t want him sleeping in your room,” King said, bringing his hand up to rub his chest absentmindedly. By this time they had arrived in Zoe’s room and Drake was laying her underneath the covers, he was hoping to every god he’d never heard of that the painkillers would kick in quickly.

“Drake said that he would let me decorate it any way I wanted!” Zoe told her dad in an excited voice that only a little girl could manage.

“That’s awesome,” King told his little doodlebug, not daring to sit on the bed for fear of the pain it would cause. He kissed her forehead before she lay down to minimize the friction on his ribs.

Zoe nodded, “I wish I had a girl to help me.”

Suddenly an image of a girl dressed in white, with blonde hair and dreadlocks, assaulted King before he could bury the memory. He looked away from Zoe for a moment, trying to keep the tears from assaulting him, before looking back at her, “Well, maybe you can blackmail Jarko into helping you since you saved Fluffy.”

This seemed to excite the girl, who burrowed underneath the covers and accepted a kiss from Drake good night as well. King tried very hard to ignore the warmth in his stomach, or pass it off as nausea. When the vampire placed a hand on his lower back and gently led him from the room, the feeling grew exponentially, but Hannibal stuck to the same theory.

Once back in… Drake’s room, the hunter found himself being tucked in as well. He tried to bury the part of him that wanted to snuggle with the vampire, along with all the other parts of himself that he had stored away.

“Relax, my love,” Drake said as he pulled King gently to him, careful not to jostle the injured man. He could hear Zoe’s heartbeat across the hall and was quick to settle his mate so that the man would be in the same deep sleep. Although he wanted his mate to rest and be well, there were a few things that he wanted to settle first, “Will you allow me to ask you a few questions?”

King knew that he was in no position to refuse, but his instincts told him, as well as everything he’d ever heard or seen about vampire mates, that should he refuse, it would be honored, “Okay.”

“What relationship do you have with Jarko?”

He almost lied, it would have been safer for his brother if he’d lied. It was just that with his own secrets to keep, King didn’t want to lie to Drake about this. It wasn’t worth it, “Jarko took care of me when Danica had me before. He’s the only reason I’m still alive and, believe it or not, when he’s not around the duo of crazy, he’s not a bad guy. He even sees Zoe as his niece but Asher is his sire and he can’t defy him when the bastard is near.”

“Would you permit me to see what it was like? When you were with Danica?”

King froze, this was worth lying! This was worth trying to run and escape as far as he was concerned, but Drake seemed to realize where his mind had gone and moved to soothe him immediately, “I will not force you to do so. You could just think of a memory and I will not go any deeper than that. It will be like a… What do you call it?… A timeline, if you will. I will only see what you wish me to see.”

Hannibal thought about that and thought about the day that Danica drug him back to vampire central, then he looked at Drake and nodded. Drake’s probing wasn’t a painful entry, like when Danica had done her own voodoo mind trick on him. Instead, he still felt like he was in total control and Drake was just an observer. 

He showed the vampire king all the rape, the torture, the blood loss, and some of the verbal torment, but certainly not all. He also showed him Jarko’s help and meeting the hunters, his need for revenge on the Talos siblings, though no specifics about when he took the cure or how he wanted to kill ‘weak’ vampires. And finally, although Drake hadn’t actually asked to see it, he showed the vampire when Zoe was conceived, born, and when she met Jarko.

Then, he cut Drake off and looked away. He had never shared that much with anyone, not since Danica used him as her toy. He didn’t have it in him to fight Drake when the man used a hand to pull his chin up and accepted the butterfly kiss shocked, “Thank-you for sharing with me. I promise you, they will not get away with what they did to you.”

Silently King moved to tuck his head into the vampire’s neck and allowed the feeling of security to wash over him as Drake tightened his hold. He inhaled the scent and it made him freeze; red wine and magic, which was like an old mixture of citrus and dark chocolate. He tried to pull away quickly, but his sudden terror had put Drake on edge and the vampire tightened his hold.

“Shh, it’s alright. Calm down and tell me what’s wrong,” he encouraged, stroking his mate’s hair, “I know that there is something you are hiding. Just tell me and I’ll take care of it.”

King shook his head, “It’s nothing… it’s nothing,” he commented, evening out his breathing but not inhaling deeply. He started to doze quickly and barely heard Drake’s reply.

“Soon you’ll feel safe enough to tell me, and then, whatever it is, I’ll fix it,” He promised, kissing the top of Hannibal’s head.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning Hannibal woke up to Zoe bouncing on the bed beside him and Drake behind her with a tray of breakfast for two. Fluffy was back as well, already jumping up on the bed beside Zoe, but keeping a steady eye on Drake as well. How was this his life?

Nothing could ever be normal.

“Daddy, we brought you breakfast!”

“Thank-You Doodlebug,” he said as he sat up and accepted the tray from Drake, with Zoe cuddling into his side. Zoe started talking as the two ate, and Drake went into what King assumed was a closet. He was in no way curious, not at all.

“…and then when I was chasing Spike and Fang,” King really had to give Jarko a headslap for naming his dogs so lazily, “...The mean lady with the black hair grabbed me and threw me down. She said if her nephew wanted me to domesticate his dogs he’d have let them grow old and die.”

Hannibal shot up and instantly he thought his chest would burst. Drake was there in a moment, supporting him and leaning him back on the pillows, “Danica shoved my daughter?”

“Shh, calm down, she won’t  _ ever  _ make that mistake again, lover, I assure you.”

The hunter immediately calmed, but ran a hand through Zoe’s hair as she continued her tale cautiously. After breakfast was finished they started to play games, mainly Snakes & Ladders, while Jarko came to sit with them since Drake went to a meeting. King did not think of the vampire in the suit he’d been wearing the entire time.

He did not.

“You’re stealing my dog, Brat!”

Zoe giggled, “He likes me better!”

“Oh he does, does he?” Jarko questioned as he began to stalk his brother’s little girl, “Well how do you like this?”

King watched happily and with complete faith as Jarko tickled his little girl. Asher was nowhere to be found, therefore nothing, not even Danica, could make the giant hurt his ‘brat’ at the moment. They were a cute pair.

While Zoe was at the peak of her squealing and screaming, Drake returned. All he heard was his daughter screaming ‘stop it’ from his and King’s room and his feral nature took over. Before anyone knew what was happening he had Jarko pinned to the wall on the other side of the room and King had jumped up from the bed, ignoring the pain.

“Zoe, go to your room!” he shouted and she took off. Any doubts he had about Drake being his mate died at that moment. He knew that he wasn’t going to be able to physically pull Drake from his brother, so he decided to try another approach as he placed his hands on Drake’s hips, “He would never hurt Zoe. Let him go, please.”

While the rest of Drake’s body relaxed, his arm holding Jarko did not slacken, “She was screaming for him to stop.”

“She’s ticklish, it was only a game,” Hannibal explained as once again a memory assaulted him and he moved to kiss Drake’s neck repeatedly. Much to his pleasure and chagrin it worked and Drake released Jarko. One jerk of King’s head and his brother was making a break for it, Fluffy following right behind him.

Drake turned to face him and pulled him close; kissing the young man with such passion that it made Hannibal’s toes curl. He was so screwed! This was such a bad idea.

Although he wanted to move further, there were things that they had to discuss, so the original vampire pulled away. He wouldn’t risk taking Hannibal before he was healed, anway. His mate was far too precious and fragile in his human state, “You should get some sleep; I want to introduce you as my mate to the council tonight.”

“The council?” King growled with venom.

“Yes, I know that you were a hunter but things are different now,” Drake insisted, studying his mate as the vampire moved to sit on the foot of the bed. 

It wasn’t as if he had any real love for the self-proclaimed leaders of the modern vampire race, but he had to admit that he was curious about why his mate hated them so vehemently. It seemed much deeper than his hatred for the Talos siblings, but the younger man wouldn’t tell him. He would get there, of course, but the awakened king also needed to establish himself as the unquestioned leader once more, and he didn’t think it smart to wait.

He did explain his reasoning to his mate though, “Until I find which ones are worthy of being vampires, I want them to think they are still important.”

King was getting lazy, he was letting too many memories surface and he knew that he had to stop. He had sworn to do many things when he took the cure. To rid himself of the guilty feelings that came with taking it and to purge modern vampires that had lost their purpose. The council was right near the top of those that he wanted to see fry though. 

It was just that being back among so many vampires, it was easy to forget that they weren’t all like Danica and Asher. That there had been a time when he’d been excited to become like the rest of his family. He could not let his memories get in the way and make him want to be a vampire again; it would only bring pain and emotion into his mission to take out weak vampires; the council, the Talos, and more than anyone else, Blade.

He’d wanted them dead for so long. To avenge what he lost. And Drake had never been there before!

Why should he confess all to a man that let such tragedy befall a race he created? What right did this vampire have to come charging in and demand access to his mind or heart? Screw the mating bond; the bastard had chosen napping, instead of being there for his family when he was needed!

Drake sensed his anger, though he didn’t understand it. He tried to probe throughout the day, but found instead that his mate had shut him off from any progress that they had made. Frustration bubbled within him, as the one thing of this modern world that he actually cared about and wanted, danced right back out of his reach.

That night King was dressed in a silk shirt and leather pants. He wasn’t supposed to be out of bed and he’d almost taken that sorry excuse to Drake, but then he’d heard a voice from his past say, ‘Don’t you dare be a wuss!’ Of course, instead of dealing with it, he just buried the thoughts again and put the damn clothes on. Royal blue and silver accents; he would have preferred snowflakes to dragons on his jewelry, but life was full of little disappointments.

Zoe was apparently going too and she was getting dressed in her room. Jarko had dared to come back an hour ago and was sitting with King, until Drake came back from the start of the meeting to tell them it was time. His daughter might have been largely unaware of the tension, but both of the men were sweating bullets.

And Jarko shouldn’t have even been able to sweat, still being a fanger and all.

“Who all is going to be there?”

“It’s the meeting where Dracula, King of Vampires, is announcing his mate and child?” Jarko scoffed, taking the tie out of his hair for the fifth time and redoing it, “Every vampire who’s made any sort of name for themself is sitting down there.”

“Does that include your fucked up family?”

“They were your fucked up family too, asshole!” He reminded, often frustrated by the fact that King refused to acknowledge their Talos heritage, “And yes, they are down there.”

Hannibal was silent, trying to meditate and find some sort of damn center. While he was trying to re-enforce the dam that was holding back his past, Zoe came in, dressed in royal blue and lavender, and it almost sent him over the edge. He felt another crack appear in his mental barrier, even as he told Zoe how pretty she looked out of reflex, and promptly left the extra doting to Jarko.

All too soon Drake was back at the door and Zoe was running over to him, so he could lift her onto his hip.

King couldn’t help but vocalize, “I have a bad feeling about this.”

Drake just chuckled and ran his hand along King’s jaw, “Don’t worry, lover. They could all attack at once and still not be able to touch either of you.”

The ride on the elevator was strained. Drake couldn’t stand that after all the progress they’d made. His mate was standing on the far side of the box, putting as much distance between them as he could manage. Jarko was stuck in the middle looking unsure of his place in the tension and Zoe, being the smart girl she was, stayed silent so as not to accidentally set anything off.

When they reached the bottom floor, King let the original vampire take his hand without protest. 

Jarko was following them, ready to take on anyone who tried to hurt his brother. Once the vampire king had named his mate officially, the pecking order would clearly go Drake, Hannibal, Asher, and then Danica; there would be nothing to keep him from protecting his brother after tonight. Zoe would also be protected from his sire and the man’s sister, though he wouldn’t have to take orders from her for a few years yet.

They walked into the room and everyone was immediately knee bowed and body bent before Drake, most eyes down, all but two pairs.

“I make this decree; Hannibal King is my mate, his daughter, Zoe, is my own as well. Anyone who does not honor them as they would honor me will face a fate far worse than death. Are there any who would dare object to this decree?”

“THIS IS NOT FAIR!!!!!” Danica shrieked.

“Why am I not surprised?” King said exasperated, “You owe me fifty bucks.”

Jarko snorted, “Put it on my tab.”

“You’re my toy, you worthless little whore!” Danica shouted. 

Asher tried to grab his sister, knowing that had the vampire king not been holding his daughter, she would not have gotten this far but she was out of control and moved closer to the quartet.

Hannibal wasn’t even surprised. He’d known something like this was bound to happen. And if the animal lover thought he wasn’t going to pay up that fifty bucky, then he was in for a rude awakening.

Danica was in his face when her volatile rant from hell crossed the line, “You will never be anything other than a whore! At least your father went down, if moronically, then in a blaze of glory! He’d roll over in his grave to see you fucking the king for a little respect! Hell, you’re probably the reason he got himself killed, the thought of you as a childe!”

The vampire’s face was suddenly in a world of hurt, as King went to attack her like a savage. Jarko and Asher were trying to get him off, but he wasn’t budging and, after a moment, the buff blonde moved to take a terrified Zoe from his king so that Drake could get a hold of Hannibal. Asher grabbed his sister and tried to see how bad the damage was. 

To put it simply, Danica was ‘fucked up’.

The council was so tense when Drake turned to glare at them that no one dared to breathe, “Let this be a warning to all of you. Lock both siblings in a cell and then get out!”

For a bunch of all powerful vampires, they all scattered like a bunch of rats at the first opportunity. Drake, who was still holding a struggling mate, began to force the enraged man toward the elevator, “Jarko, take Zoe upstairs to her room.”

Once the elevator arrived, Jarko had already disappeared up the stairs with Zoe, but King was still struggling. When the doors to the metal box closed, Drake finally released enough of his grip that when the young man shoved him away he went somewhere. Despite what the vampire hunters claimed was a cure, the original vampire wasn’t so sure. If he were fully human, his mate shouldn’t be able to resist Jarko and Asher so easily, or even fight Danica the way that he had. Much less have the strength to make him move.

Turning away from Drake, Hannibal turned to lean on the railing, unable to communicate anything past the red rage he was seeing. That fucking vampire cunt had the nerve to even mention his father! As if she would have been the first bitch’s fangs to be ripped out after Gitano Dragonetti’s!

When Drake moved to hold his arm, King moved it away before any contact was made, but didn’t see the look of hurt through his anger. He couldn’t see anything but the glorious red of Danica’s blood as it spilled. It was the only thing that could give him any sort of satisfaction at the moment.

The original vampire took a deep breath, “Love…”

The elevator chimed as they reached the top floor and King moved to get off as fast as he could. He thought about going straight to bed and rebuilding all his walls while he slept, but he needed to see Zoe and make sure that she was okay. She’d seen him kill before, but it was quick and flawless, with a stake one second and then there was only ash. She had never seen him fight with the intention of just making someone feel pain.

The room was pleasant enough, even before she changed anything. A bit to suave for a little girl’s room, with the sleek dark furniture and greyish blue walls. The design was bearable enough, though, and Zoe adored the huge display case full of every kids’ movie known to man.

“Zoe?”

“Daddy!” She took in both him and Drake. It had only been a few minutes, but his girl was more than aware that a lot could have happened in that time, “Are you okay now?”

“Yes, Doodlebug,” King said as he sat down on the bed, figuring the pain couldn’t get any worse then what he was feeling right now, “What about you? Are you okay?”

“I think so… Can I ask you a question?”

He knew that this could take a number of turns and none of them were good for him, but he couldn’t leave the little girl to wonder, “Of course, sweetie. I’ll try to answer as many as I can.”

“The mean woman, she was talking about your daddy, right?”

“Yes, she was.”

“How come I’ve never heard you talk about him before?”

Hannibal sighed, “Because Daddy has worked very hard to forget about him?”

Zoe didn’t seem to understand that, “Didn’t you love him?”

He refused to cry, damn it all! 

“Yes sweetie, I loved him very much. It’s complicated, Doodlebug,” King finally went for a copout, as he realized that he couldn’t explain to her that which he'd never dealt with himself, “How about we talk about it later?”

“Two more questions?”

Drake stepped forward to stop the girl, but Hannibal held up a hand to stop him, “Shoot, Doodlebug.”

“Did you have brothers and sisters?”

“One sister and kinda two brothers, one for sure,” King said. He could tell Zoe wanted to ask about that response but knowing she only had one question left, stopped herself.

Zoe nodded, probably making a note to ask about that later, “Did your daddy teach you how to fight?”

King couldn’t help but laugh a little at both the question and the memories that came back to him, “Yes baby, he taught me how to fight.”

She yawned and burrowed under the covers after kissing King’s cheek, “I wish he were here to teach me.”

“Me too, baby, me too,” King said standing up.

Drake moved to kiss Zoe good night as well, before he moved to follow Hannibal across the hall. His mate was changing back into his sleep wear when the vampire entered the room. A part of him wanted to walk over and demand the truth, but he knew that the boy was rattled enough without him making it worse.

He moved to stand in front of King and waited for the hunched over man to look up and meet his eyes. Once he had done so, Drake’s frustration melted away when he saw the tears in his mate’s eyes. It did not take a mind reader to know that Hannibal couldn’t have told him about this for all the money in the world, because he had never dealt with it himself.

“Lie down,” He ordered gently and, once the young man had done so, he moved to lie down next to him. He cupped King’s cheek, “I want you to show me everything. Everything you hid from me the first time.”

King nodded and took a moment to sort through his muddled psyche, before locking eyes with the first vampire.


	3. Chapter 3

Suddenly they were standing hand in hand at a different location. After a moment King realized that Drake had gone completely into his mind this time and brought him along for the ride. This was different.

“Is this where you wanted to start?” Drake clarified.

Hannibal nodded, not trusting his voice, so he just pointed to the other side of the room. 

When Drake followed the direction he pointed toward, he saw a vampire with blonde hair and the bluest eyes he’d ever seen submerged in a pool from the waist down. The pool he was in was floating with rubber ducks and the back wall of the thing looked like a waterfall. He was incredibly handsome.

“Oh, come on! Would I let anything happen to you?” The vampire demanded suddenly.

Drake, in his confusion, looked around and finally spotted a kid, little more than a babe, standing by the sofa in the living area. Looking back and forth between the two, the original vampire realized he was looking at his mate and his father, when he was little. They had the same blonde hair and nose.

Though he was bare from the waist up, Drake noticed a necklace was the only piece of jewelry that the vampire wore. The chain was long and sleek, probably white gold as it was too pure in color to be silver. If there was a charm on it, then it fell below the water.

Little Hannibal shook his head in response but didn’t move from his spot beside the sofa.

“Hey, your dad is the biggest, baddest thing on earth,” The vampire insisted.

Suddenly another vampire came walking in, “I don’t know man, his grandsire might disagree with you!” The new man busted out laughing at his own joke and was already passing through the room.

“Shut the fuck up, Quinn! You’re not helping the cause!” Hannibal’s father snapped at the newcomer, Quinn. Obviously upset at being snapped at, the man pouted as he stomped off, his path being followed by the eyes of the little boy.

“Hey! Common Hanni! Remember the other day when I fought that big bad council vampire? You don’t think this silly old water is tougher than that guy do you?”

The little guy tilted his head for half a second, “Probably.”

Drake smiled as the vampire burst into laughter and took a different approach, “Hey, you’re probably right, but if it’s really that tough are you gonna let me handle it on my own? Family’s gotta look out for each other, little guy! Come on and be my wingman!”

Slowly little Hannibal started to move forward and soon he was standing right on the edge, “Alright, I’m right here, now jump!” Like any little boy, Drake watched as this younger version of his mate jumped for his father with unshakable faith. Once the boy had landed in the water he was peppered in kisses and praise from the vampire.

Drake looked at his mate and could see that he was barely keeping it together, but sure enough the room started to spin as they landed in another memory. This time they were in a white bedroom, not a spec of color anywhere, bar the two people in the room. Again it was Hannibal and his father, although a couple of years had passed and his lover was now a young child.

His little mate was playing on the bed with some sort of little doll and his dad was leaning back in a chair, working on something Drake believed was called a laptop. After a moment the boy seemed to grow tired of his toy and started to stalk up behind his father. The ancient vampire watched as the man noted his approach with a slight turn of the head, but it was not enough for the boy to know that he’d been caught.

In this new memory, the vampire’s necklace was completely visible. It was a small and delicate charm on the end of the white gold chain. A snowflake completely forged from diamonds, except for a blue diamond in the center, was a piece that almost seemed too delicate for this modern world. From what Drake had seen, humans of this time no longer remembered the dangers of winter.

Once he was close enough, Hannibal jumped over the back of the chair, wrapping his arms around the man's neck, “Whatcha doing, Dad?”

In one fluid motion the man grabbed his hands and flipped him over the chair, so that he landed in his father’s lap, “I’m working on translating some old texts.”

“Oh,” Hannibal said looking at the screen, “Do you know what they’re about yet?” 

“Yes, they tell you how to summon and absorb the blood goddess, La Magra’s power.”

“Huh,” This seemed to earn more scrutiny, even at the boy grabbed his father’s necklace to play with it, “So, you would be a god?”

Drake noticed that the initials ‘DF’ were engraved into the white gold backing of the snowflake charm.

His father grinned at him, “Not exactly. You’d be the embodiment of La Magra on earth.”

“Like the pope to the catholic church?”

“Very much like that.”

“Why do you want to do it?”

“Well,” The man started to explain, “Do you remember how Mommy says things used to be different? Vampires used to be different.”

“She said they’re a bunch of degenerate ingrates now!”

“That’s right. Like the Shadowy Council, you know how much we don’t like them?” 

The boy nodded, enthusiastically. 

“There are certain people, like them, who think that they deserve to be in power because they were born vampires, even though that meant nothing to the very first vampires, who were all made, except for the first.”

“So Mommy doesn’t think that being born makes them special?”

“No, she definitely doesn’t.”

“And her daddy didn’t either, right?”

“Right.”

There was a silence, but little Hannibal’s eyebrows stayed knitted, obviously not being at peace with the subject just yet.

“What’s going on in that big brain of yours?”

“Well… The Pope isn’t allowed to be married or have kids; if you do this, would you still be my dad?”

Hannibal’s father turned him so that he was looking into the little guy’s eyes, “I will always be your Dad; I would never do anything that would take me away from you. Do you understand me?”

The little boy nodded, hugging his father tight, and the vampire returned the favor. Drake noted that his mate was trembling like crazy and a few tears had slipped from his eyes, but he had learned that King didn’t like to be touched when he was on the edge, so the first vampire knew he’d have to wait until something pushed him off before trying to touch him more than the hand he was holding. It still killed a part of the first vampire to be utterly useless in the face of his mate’s pain.

After a few minutes the other vampire, Quinn, came into the room.

“Deacon, your wife wants to get there on time for once and I definitely don’t want to go back down there and tell her you two haven’t even started getting ready yet!”

“Alright Quinn, we’ll be down in five! Is your sister ready too?”

“Yep, they are both just daring us to make them late for once! I’m telling you, hurry, cause those girls could literally hold onto it forever!”

Both little Hannibal and his father, Deacon, started laughing but moved to get ready.

The next memory was obviously a party. It was in full swing when they arrived and, for once, Drake didn’t see Hannibal straight away. No, he saw Deacon, Quinn, and a blonde girl first. They were standing on the same wall as the waterfall, watching the proceedings carefully. Following Deacon’s eyesight, Drake spotted his mate sitting on a couch, with a dark skinned woman, who was dressed in white. It had only been a year, maybe two, but he doubted it.

His grown mate seemed to deem it necessary to give some commentary at this point, “Not all of these memories are just mine. Some of them I got from family members once we had a blood connection, after I turned.”

Suddenly Drake heard Deacon speaking and looked back at the trio, “Quinn, Mercury, I have to go down and handle some business in the club. You watch him like a hawk!”

“Relax, we’ve got it!” Quinn slurred, obviously intoxicated.

“I’m not joking you dumbfuck! I don’t know who invited Vanessa, but if my mate finds out she was here after Hanni told us how uncomfortable the bitch makes him, there will quite literally be the devil to pay!”

“Sire,” The girl placated, “She so much as looks at him wrong, I’ll rip her damn eyes out! Nothings gonna happen to my little boyfriend.”

Deacon nodded, “Alright, Mercury. And if anything happens, call me immediately.”

Hearing this Drake looked back at his young mate and realized how fidgety he was and that he looked ready to run from the room screaming. The boy was also hyper aware of his father, because as soon as Deacon started toward the door, the kid was staring him down in sheer terror. His father must have felt those eyes on him, because he looked up and smiled, pointing to the blonde, Mercury. Though he still looked a little apprehensive, Little Hannibal, or Hanni, nodded in affirmation.

It was as soon as Deacon left however, that things got hairy. The woman, Vanessa, put her arms around Hanni and started rubbing his arms, “You know, little one, your mother isn’t really Deacon’s mate.”

“Yes she is,” Hanni demanded immediately.

“No, little one, you see, I’m Deacon’s mate, and my son, Eric, is his intended son. Your mother just tricked him. You’re not even Deacon’s son,” She hissed.

Suddenly Mercury was in front of the two, hauling Vanessa up and backhanding her across the room. Mercury turned toward her little brother and reached out for him, but he ducked and ran toward a bunch of stairs. His sister would not be deterred so easily, however, because once she sent Vanessa packing, she turned and ran up the stairs herself.

She arrived at a door and knocked, “Come on, Boyfriend! Let me in!” She put her ear against the door and when she twisted the knob found it to be open. She searched the room but found no one and quickly pulled out her phone. “Sire, we need you back up here, asap!”

“Hanni, buddy, where are you?” She called out several more times, but there was no reply. She waited a moment before heading back for the stairs, “I’m gonna go down stairs and make everybody leave, so you can come down anytime you want.”

There wasn’t a complete memory change, but he could tell it was a lapse in time, and then Deacon was coming up the stairs. Drake only thought he knew how to look feral, but if he looked half as angry as King’s dad, it was no wonder people cowered before him. It appeared that Hanni’s dad knew exactly where he’d gone as he entered the same white bedroom from earlier. 

Drake followed as his mate pulled him along.

Deacon pressed a button on the wall and suddenly the square in the middle of the room lost its top to reveal the bed. Little Hannibal was sprawled in the middle of it, tear tracks still marring his face, and he’d fallen asleep from exhaustion. The father seemed to calm at the sight of his child resting, but obviously he knew what happened needed to be addressed immediately, as he shook the little one and encouraged him to wake up.

“Daddy?”

“That’s right little man and you know that right, that I’m your daddy?”

“Like your Eric’s daddy?”

Deacon let a growl escape him, then moved to lie down beside his son and pulled him to his chest, “No. I’ve never told you about Eric because he’s not your brother.”

“Not even like Quinn?”

“Not even like Quinn,” Deacon assured, “See, I turned Vanessa while she was going into labor having Eric, do you know what labor is?”

“It’s when girls have their baby.”

“Yes and I didn’t mean to turn Eric, really I didn’t turn him. When I made Vanessa into a vampire, her vampire nature tried to protect the baby, but she was only half turned when she had him, so he’s only a half vampire.”

“So she turned him and not you?”

“In a manner of speaking; it was my fault but he’s her blood, not mine.”

“If that’s true,” Hanni said, “Why did she say those things about Mommy and me?”

Deacon looked at his son, “Your sister gave me the quick version, why don’t you tell me what she said.”

“She said that Mommy isn’t your mate, she is and Eric’s your son, I’m not. And she said Mommy tricked you into thinking she’s your mate.”

Another ferocious growl ripped through Deacon, “None of that is true, do you understand me? I need you to believe that more than anything else in the world, Hanni. Your mother is my mate and you are my only little boy, understand?”

“Yeah, Dadda,” Hanni said with a yawn. 

Deacon looked ready to send him to his room but then thought about it, “You wanna sleep in here tonight?”

“Yeah.”

After that memory faded, they were back in the living room and, try as he might, Drake could only see Deacon, his mate was nowhere to be found. Mercury was standing beside her sire, as he kneeled next to the pool, moving around the ducks with his hand. They both looked to have nervous energy rippling around them in spades.

“Oh, I can’t wait for him to get home!!” She exclaimed.

“We’ve all missed him,” Deacon said standing up.

“I heard Eric was attacking some of the clubs in his area.”

“He never got close to him. I made sure of that.”

“Does he know that?”

Deacon just gave his childe a dirty look and toed one of the ducks with his shoe. Of course Hanni didn’t know that his daddy was still looking out for him. His boy going through this stupid independent phase was making him turn grey and he was a fucking vampire!!!

The foreign thoughts and sensation that rippled across the place in his chest where Drake had blood bonds with the childer he’d turned, reminded him that this memory must be one of those that didn’t belong to his mate alone. He felt a special moment of connection with his mate’s father. Having a favorite child was not all that it was cracked up to be. They required constant work and maintenance. The first and only girl that Drake had ever turned was his favorite, but no one could find trouble like his Vitani.

“Four years of college, imagine how much he’s grown!”

“I’d rather not think about it.”

“Well, you don’t have to think about it, but you’d better be able to deal with it!” His mate burst into the apartment with the declaration. 

Mercury practically tackled the young man in an embrace squealing the entire time. She stepped out of the way when Deacon approached. Drake watched as all the bravado that he had come to recognize his mate for, and had been relieved to see finally, slipped away as the two embraced.

That memory passed away almost as quickly as it came and moved on to the same scene in a bedroom that Drake had only caught a glimpse of before. His mate was laying on a king sized bed that was done in royal blue and chrome silver all the way around. The boy appeared to be listening to music, although it was louder than anything his sensitive ears had heard before.

It didn’t take long for the music to die off and young Hannibal turned to see his father was the culprit, “Hey!”

“Take a pause for the cause, kiddo,” Deacon said as he walked in and took a seat on the bed, “We’ve gotta talk, wingman.”

“Whatever it is, I swear Quinn did it! I’ve been up here since I got off work and before that I was…”

“Relax! You didn’t do anything,” Deacon took a deep breath, hand swiping through his hair, before he squared off with Hannibal once more, “Look, now that you’ve finished college, held a job, and have proven whatever stupid self-worth mission you were on…”

The Hannibal of the memory set his father with the most irritated eye roll that Drake had ever seen and crossed his arms.

“...Your mother and I have decided that it’s time for you to start thinking about becoming a vampire.”

His mate seemed a little shocked, “Are you sure now is the right time to be considering that?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” The young man pondered sarcastically, “Have you seen your schedule lately?!” 

A hand was held up to aid Drake’s mate in naming his list, “Kill the entire council, become a god, thing, whatever, you know what I mean, and what’s that other thing… Oh yeah, kill the day walker! I don’t think you’re gonna have time to pencil in turn my kid!”

“Hanni,” Deacon said, pulling his son close to him, “I’ve wanted to turn you since the day you were born. I would blow this entire thing off if it meant I could turn you and keep you safe.”

“You really wanna do this now?”

“I’d do it this very moment if you were ready.”

Hannibal looked at his father for a moment, contemplating how to tell his father he was ready. 

It turned out he didn’t have to, as his father read the truth in his eyes and nodded, “Lie down and hold still.”

The younger version of his mate did just that, shuffling to get comfortable on his bed. He seemed confused when his father reached into his pocket, but the vampire just pulled out a black jewelry box. Watching the realization dawn on the boy’s face when his father opened the box, pulled a smile from Drake.

It was a snowflake just like his father’s.

“You’ve already got it?”

The blue eyed vampire huffed, taking the necklace out, “I’ve had it since before you were even born.”

With a quick pass over Hannibal’s neck, the gift was bestowed, and his mate couldn’t have looked more ecstatic. Drake watched as Deacon kissed his son’s forehead one last time before biting into his jugular. It was a very intimate moment to be privy to.

He could feel the strength of the connection his mate had to that memory, as it began to slip out of reach and another took its place. This time he was not in the apartment, he was in some sort of tomb. He saw Hannibal as a vampire, but he was with Danica and Asher.

“We’re so sorry for your loss King, but we thought you might like to be the one to tell your mother.”

The newly turned vampire didn’t say anything as he moved deeper into the tomb and ahead Drake could see a doorway. He felt his mate tense and pull away from him. The first vampire turned back, but King just shook his head and pointed, wanting his vampire to continue and follow his own vampire self.

As Drake turned and followed the trio, King collapsed against the wall and slid down to the ground. He had lived it once and he just couldn’t bear to see it again. Since he stayed in the corridor he did not see the look of placement on Drake’s face or the identification of where the first vampire was. However, every sound told him exactly what was happening in the memory and it felt like he was reliving it again, despite not having to actually see it. 

The first howl of agony, he saw is father’s blood everywhere, covering every visible surface… The second howl, even more furious and feral, his father’s scent, tainted by magic, has attacked his nose… The third howl, he’d gone completely feral, because the scents of his perished brother and sister have reached him to push him over the edge.

Then, the sound of clubs on flesh. Danica and Asher acquiring their new toy… And one last feral growl, as the other scents, enemy scents, permanently mark his mind and he vows revenge, on the daywalker, on the council, on all the weakest links.

Drake walked back to his lover, unable to say or do anything because he expected a lot of things, but never this. He knelt down as the feelings of guilt washed over him and pulled Hannibal close, letting King lose all his frustrations through the tears. After there seemed to be nothing more left in his mate, he lifted the young man up, “What happened to your mother?”

“I don’t know. Asher and Danica spread a rumor that I died with my father and siblings. My mother heard about that and disappeared. I've been looking for her since I escaped crazies one and two, so she’ll know that I’m still alive, but… There is something you should know about her.”

He would have asked what, but the scene was already changing and they were in the apartment. Hanni, probably right around the age of the party, was sitting on the sofa in a tux and playing on some electronic device that Drake didn’t care to know. It wasn’t until he heard a voice from many centuries back that he turned away from his cute little mate.

“Are you ready little man?” Vitani demanded. 

Vitani was his first childe and his only daughter. He had always picked on her that after having one girl, he could never deal with raising another. She had left him a few centuries before his sleep to become her own person. She was wearing a dress of royal blue and lavender, her crest colors, which was absolutely beautiful one her.

“Mommy, I don’t see why I have to go, Daddy doesn’t have to!”

“Your daddy is working. Now, come on!”

“Mommy, why do you always wear blue or purple?”

His daughter smiled at the little boy, “Because they are my colors.”

Hannibal seemed to accept the answer easily, “What are Daddy’s colors?”

The dark haired vampiress, with sand like skin, and hazel eyes that matched his mate’s, was fixing the bow around Hanni’s neck as she replied, “Your dad favors white and chrome.”

“So Dad got to design your room?”

“Yes, I’m certainly not responsible for that monstrosity!”

Hanni giggled, “So, what are my colors?”

“I don’t know little prince, you have to figure that out for yourself.”

That got a moment of scrutiny, “I like your blue and Daddy’s chrome. Do you think Mercury would do my room in those colors?”

“I’m sure she would, doodlebug.”

“Quinn and Mercury are meeting us there right?”

“Of course. You’re Merc’s date, remember?”

“Yay!!!”

The memory was short, but it was all Drake needed to understand what his mate wanted by sharing the information. It was something he was more than willing to give. The realization that he’d left his daughter to find her mate and have a child, his mate, then essentially lose them both, when he could have stopped it, broke his heart into a million pieces.

“A few years ago, I was awoken by a sorrow so powerful that I forced your mother to sleep until I allowed her to wake, so that she could not do anything she’d regret later. I will wake her in the morning and make sure that the two of you are brought back together,” Drake told King as he held him close to his chest; he decided to wait and talk to Vitani before revealing the rest of his plan.

Suddenly the scene changed once more and they were sitting in what looked like a prison cell. His mate was on a bench and Zoe’s mother, Somerfield, had just placed a needle and vial on the table just inside the cage. From their observation point, King did a little more narration.

“I was angry. I couldn’t find Mom, I had so much of Danica and Asher’s blood inside of me, and so little of anything else because of the starvation that it was like I could feel my dad disappearing completely... And, then again, he’d never been clearer. He promised to never do anything that would make him leave me and he lied. So, I decided that it wasn’t going to go down like that.”

Young Hannibal stood up and walked toward the girl and the table, “I won’t feel any connection to the vampires in me? None?”

“No, there will be no connection left if you take the cure!”

King laughed as he looked at himself, “What’s sad is, she wasn’t really lying to me, because back then I didn’t even know what I was asking. I wanted to make him go away emotionally, mentally, and Somerfield thought I was talking about the blood bond. All I knew was that I wanted him gone; I wanted to push him away before he left me completely… It didn’t work.”

The memories dissolved away and they were back in their bed, “I buried him deep down, I buried all of them. I justified it, that I was just putting my emotions aside so I could get the job done, so I could get close enough to kill Blade, kill the council, and everyone belonging to the house of Talos… But, I know that if I’d had my way, I never would have dug it up… He had his moments though, where he pushed through whether I fucking liked it or not!”

“When?”

“When I’m teaching my daughter how to curse, or she’s bugging the hell out of me when I’m trying to work. It might not be a pool of rubber ducks, but when she goes off to college I’m sure there will be something I keep just so I can remember when she was little,” King explained, “And I suppose he’s not the only one. When my little girl wants someone to help decorate her room, I remember Mercury designed my bedroom. When she walks in wearing blue or lavender, all I can see is Mom. Jarko is a bigger version of Quinn, I’ve never acknowledged it but it’s always been there.”

King yawned and Drake smiled, glad his mate had shared so much with him, “Go to sleep, Hanni, you’re tired.”


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning, King woke up alone for the first time. Most people would have been upset, but he was a little grateful, since it gave him the chance to really get himself together and find his equilibrium again. He thought about what happened the night before and he knew that it had been good for him in the long run; that didn’t mean it hadn’t hurt like a bitch while it was happening though.

He slowly moved toward the bathroom, deciding to take a shower while his overbearing mate was not there to fret over him. He was pretty sure that he’d heard several fights between his parents that ended with, ‘if you don’t back off, I’m going to let my father eat you. I swear to my grandfather, I’ll do it!’ but he wasn’t ready to ask Drake about that part just yet. Looking back, he’d always heard stories about his grandsire, but he was shielded from the identities of Drake’s parents; Hannibal figured he had enough on his plate now without piling that mystery on too.

He made it out of the shower and was standing in nothing but a towel when Zoe burst in, squealing and more excited than he'd seen her in weeks. She’s practically bouncing off the walls as she showed him her prize, talking so fast that it was unintelligible. After the previous night, King didn’t think he could be blamed for being unable to resist.

“Zoe, take a pause for the cause, kiddo!” He said, “Now, let me see this little guy. Where did you get him?”

Jarko, who stepped into the room slowly behind her, grinned like a mad man at King’s appearance, looking around carefully before releasing a slow wolf whistle.

“Shut the fuck up! I bet you wouldn’t have done that if Drake were here, you coward!”

“Hey, there’s a difference in showing appreciation and being suicidal.”

“DADDY!” Zoe scolded, obviously wanting him to focus, “Uncle Jarko took me downstairs and showed me all the different kitties I could get on his laptop, and then he got this one for me and then he left for a few minutes. I had to wait in Drake’s throne room because he was afraid someone would try to take me away from Uncle Jarko, so I couldn’t go, but that was okay because when he came back he had the right kitten. Look he’s all black and has short hair and really pretty yellow eyes; I’m going to call him Bagheera, Baggy for short. Do you remember when Baloo called Bagheera that in that movie, The Jungle Book, so I figure that is a really good nickname!”

By the time she was done she was out of breath and Jarko looked at Hannibal with horror filled eyes, “Is that normal? I’m a vampire and I don’t think there were any words in there.”

King laughed as he moved to the bathroom and slid into his pajama pants before coming out and hoisting his daughter and her new prize onto the bed, “Believe it or not, that was only mild excitement. You get used to translating when you’re a parent.”

Jarko shook his head, “I’m going back downstairs.”

Once Zoe had given him a big hug and thanked him for her kitten, Jarko disappeared and King really looked at his daughter’s new kitten, “He’s very pretty, you picked the right kitten, Doodlebug.”

“Drake said he likes Baggy better than Fluffy, he said Bagherra was a better name then Fluffy too.”

“Well he’s not wrong,” King told her. He wanted to ask what Drake was doing but a) he felt bad getting information from his little girl and b) he still refused to admit that the vampire was truly his mate. Although he didn’t think that his mother would be against the two being together (what would her objection be? Incest? Not exactly a legitimate point amongst vampire families, no matter the shit he’d given Danica and Asher) he would much rather wait for her to know he was alive before jumping her sire’s bones.

“Hey, Doodlebug, why don’t we go get a movie?”

“Okay!” She said, leading the way with her kitten in one hand and her daddy’s hand in the other.

“I know I’ve been lenient with the ‘bed rest’ for a little while,” came Drake’s voice as he moved up the hall toward his mate and child, “But, it’s about to become a lot stricter. The doctor looked at you this morning and apparently fighting Danica put you into slightly worse shape, so you’ll bed ridden for two weeks, from today.”

Hannibal glared at the man, “What if that guy’s wrong? I want a second opinion!”

Drake followed them into Zoe’s room and turned toward his mate, as their little girl went through the movies Jarko had gotten for her, “You can have as many opinions as you like, gods know the entire building would agree that you’ve never needed my permission before, but I’m pretty sure I know who’s going to get the last say.”

“Finally going to start pulling some of that all power, first vampire shit?!” King growled and turned away, but found himself pinned to the wall before he would even register what had happened.

“Let’s not say something we can’t take back, lover, but no, I was not referring to myself. I’ve awoken Vitani and she is on her way here. Once she sees that you are alive, she might not even allow you to go to the bathroom by yourself.”

Drake was expecting a witty comeback, or sarcasm, and instead he was met with insecurity and worry, “Is she okay?”

“Yes, she was in a dreamless sleep. I’ve told her to bury her sorrows until she’s safe with me and I know from experience that she will do so.”

Hannibal finally couldn’t fight the emotions anymore and gave in ever so slightly, laying his head on Drake’s shoulder, “Do you think she’ll be okay seeing me again?”

“I think that she will be ecstatic. She’s always been one of the strongest women I know, that is why her grandmother loved her so much,” Drake said, another wave of guilt washing over him.

“Your mother?”

He nodded, “Yes, but that’s a story for another time.”

“How did you come to turn my mom?” Hannibal had to ask, it had been eating away at him since he’d learned that his grandsire was awake. Though his mom had always talked about her father with love and adoration, he had never been privy to knowing what her human life was like or how she became a vampire.

“I was passing through Egypt five millennia ago, when I came across what would become the first large dynasty of the land. The country had just united its upper and lower kingdoms under the Pharaoh Meni. He wanted me to come into the country and make peace with them before they started doing any major growing; it was not anything new,” Drake said shrugging.

“Yeah, who wants to build a dynasty just to have you come and eat everybody!” Hannibal said with mock horror.

Zoe looked at them funny but continued to look for her movie, while Drake rolled his eyes at his mate, “Anyway, when I arrived in the country there were six minions with me from my parents. Some of the kingdom’s boys were… How do you put it?… Rough housing? But they were outside in the courtyard and they ran into one of the pretentious asses with me.”

Drake chuckled, “I never would have allowed them to hurt the child but before I, even with my speed, could stop the man, your mother was there. The boys were only five or six and she was fifteen. She placed herself between the man and boy, scolding him for the gods and everyone to see, no fear or intimidation showing anywhere on her.”

“That’s Mom! She does nothing by half!”

“Yes well I quickly decided that I wanted her as one of my own and it came to my knowledge that she was Meni’s daughter, who was being auctioned off to the highest bidder. The boy she was protecting was her youngest brother,” Drake growled a bit, “Although she was the bravest of his children, Meni, like most men throughout history, only valued his sons; when I offered my peace and even my protection to the country in exchange for Vitani… Well, it was hard for him to say no.”

King thought about that for a moment, “Mom was cool with that?”

Drake chuckled, “Actually, no. She down right refused to become like me and when we began to travel she was human. It took eight years for me to convince her to take that chance, but I was far too attached to even think of making her do something she wasn’t ready for.”

Hannibal looked at him incredulously, “My mom was afraid of being bitten?”

“Well you have to understand, love, I hadn’t ever done it before, and I was only two millennia old at the time. So, she had due cause to be nervous. But, when she reached her next birthday she trusted me enough to take that leap of faith.”

“…Only two millennia old, huh? So, seven all together... I guess a few centuries of sleep didn’t mean all that much to you.”

Although his mate said this with no accusation or anger, Drake felt even more guilt lay upon him, “It was the worst mistake of my life and I will never do something so foolish again.”

Hannibal was ready to question what he meant but didn’t get the chance, “I found it!” Zoe shouted, “Let’s watch ‘The Jungle Book’!!!”

The rest of the day they watched movies. Apparently the council was still shaking in their fine tailored suits after King attacked Danica and hadn’t bothered Drake with anything trivial. The meeting had reconvened that morning with two empty chairs, and when Hannibal asked where Danica and Asher actually were Drake had danced around the topic, so that they could watch the movie in peace. 

He had no intention of telling his mate that they were locked in a small cell together, starving, being beaten, and living through more emotional abuse than any other person on the planet. Though he would not have them raped, because he knew it to be one of the few things King would never forgive him for doing, he wanted them to suffer as they had made his mate suffer. Drake was trying to figure out how to regift the necklace burning a hole in his pocket.

Rage hadn’t been a good enough word for his feelings when Danica had taken the snowflake necklace after kidnapping his mate. He knew due to her possessiveness surrounding his mate that the bitch still had it. One brutal mind invasion was all that had been required to go and get it back.

It was sheer coincidence that Vitani arrived while Zoe was picking out their fifth movie. Drake had sensed her approach before she entered the building and had quickly told Jarko to go and distract the little girl, so that the three of them could talk alone. He left a trembling Hannibal reluctantly, so that he could meet his daughter at the elevator.

The bundle of curly dark hair stepped off the lift and offered a small smile to her father, falling into his arms with practiced ease, “Father.”

“Princess, I know what happened, but I need you to see something.”

“Who told you?” Vitani demanded. She had done a lot of thinking between Miami and New York, planes were a great place to meditate, because it wasn’t like you could go anywhere anyway. Her father had told her to bury the feelings, but she’d gone to sleep thinking of her mate and child and woken up thinking about them all over again.

She never should have left for Miami knowing that the ritual was going to be a week away and she certainly should have known Deacon well enough to suspect him of moving it up to spare her, the worry. It was irrational for her to blame her father for Deacon’s death but she knew that had he been there, had he actually woken up when he felt her sorrow and not made her sleep it off, he could have fixed everything. Finally, just before arrival, she realized that it wasn’t his place to save Deacon and her children and that she had to let them go; whatever her father had woken her up for was obviously something very big and she needed to be ready to deal with it.

“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about, but first I want you to know that I’m so sorry for what happened. I know you must hate me,” Drake told her, tightening his hold.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Vitani said, “Deacon knew there were risks, we all did, and we took them.”

“They weren’t risks when I could have just brought him back,” Drake told her, “And I will not watch you go through eternity alone.”

“But…”

“No, I will bring him back. I know your grandmother and I have no doubt she’ll be angry with me for it having taken over a decade. Come on, I want you to see something.”

Vitani was ready to object, but decided that she could not do so; he was telling her that she’d get her husband and children back. They went through a corridor and when they arrived at the last door her father opened it a little bit before stepping back and nodding for her to continue. It wasn’t like he would let anything dangerous near her, so she quickly moved to open the door.

King looked up from where he was sitting on the edge of the bed and swallowed hard, “Mom…”

“Hanni,” she gasped. Suddenly she was standing on the bed, her baby in her arms again, holding onto him for dear life as tears ran down her face. He had stood up and was big enough that his hug engulfed her, but still he felt like a baby in her arms.

He tried to keep his cool for about two seconds, but the moment her scent of red wine and magic met his nose, he was clinging to her and crying. At some point they sunk onto the bed and little by little both started to come back to themselves. It was hard to believe that she was actually here.

While they were reuniting, Drake noticed that his daughter wore a snowflake just like Hanni and her mate’s. It hit him that this was probably Deacon’s symbol. Even his vampire childer hadn’t worn it, only his mate and son.

“I thought that…” Vitani couldn’t finish the statement so she let it hang there.

“No, Dad didn’t let me go with them. I was so young that he didn’t trust me with all the blood flying around. After it happened, I went to the sight with the Talos siblings and they kidnapped me.”

Several of the windows shook and Drake moved to suppress his daughter’s power enough not to destroy the room, “Did they hurt you?”

“I’ve handled it,” Drake said and it was like an instant calming effect.

Vitani nodded, “Why are you human again?”

King shook his head, “It’s a long story, but I was messed up pretty bad when I got away from Danica and Asher, so when I met some hunters who offered me a cure I gave them a fake name and took it.”

“My little prince,” Vitani said, pulling him close again. She couldn’t believe that he’d been alive all this time and had been hurting, but she wasn’t there, “Your father never had any intention of leaving you; you better know that.”

“Yeah, recently I’ve been working a lot of it out.”

“Well, we’ll do the rest together. Now, onto the important things; have you fucked your grandsire yet?”

Hannibal groaned, falling straight back on the bed, trying to smother himself with a pillow, while Drake laughed and sat down on the bed beside his mate.

“We’ve actually been getting to know one another and, since he’s injured…” Drake suddenly found a pillow being slung in his face.

“Why would you say it like that!”

“And pray tell, how was I supposed to say it?”

“Slowly! Like putting cubs into a pride, you don’t just throw them in there and wish ‘em the best of luck! You have to ease them into it gently!”

“Where are you hurt?” Vitani demanded, already stripping King of his wife beater, and he was powerless to protest.

At her gasp he moved to ease her displeasure, “Don’t worry Mom, it’s just a few broken ribs. Hey, do you want to meet your granddaughter?”

“I have a granddaughter?!!!!”

“Yep, room across the hall, come on and I’ll introduce you.”

With his daughter excitedly heading across the hall, Drake helped Hannibal to his feet, “I saw that.”

In a moment of weakness Hannibal stuck out his tongue childishly, only to have it backfire as Drake swooped in for an earth shattering kiss. The first vampire tasted like mangos and milk chocolate, and a late hint of rust, meaning that he’d probably fed before coming back to him and Zoe that morning. Apparently seven millennia did wonders for one’s kissing skills because by the time Drake released him to breathe, the brunette’s toes were curling.

“Wow!”

“All wowing aside, are you two coming or not?” His mother demanded from the doorway. King got a little dizzy from his blood traveling from north to south and then to north again in such a short period of time.

They went across the hall and entered Zoe’s room only to walk in on an argument between King’s seven year old and Jarko.

“Just pick one; it’s a movie!”

“Just pick one?! Just pick one?! How have you made it this long without getting yourself staked?!”

There was a cry of outrage, “Ahh! I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself you little brat!”

Zoe snorted, “I give it a week!”

“Zoe, be nice to Jarko, he can’t help that he’s an idiot of epic proportions.”

She giggled, grabbing a movie and her cat from the bed before turning toward her dad and seeing the new comer. Her head tilted slightly looking at the woman, who was very pretty, with dark curly hair and eyes like Drake’s.

“Zoe, come here. I want you to meet someone.”

The little girl hedged closer, the lady had her hair in very small braids all over her head and her hair was the same color as her eyes. Although she was smiling, Zoe couldn’t help but wonder why she was there, no other vampire had wanted to meet her so far. She was just a human kid.

“Zoe, this is my mom, Vitani.”

“Hi,” She said somewhat timidly.

“Hello, Zoe. Is this your kitty?” Vitani asked as she kneeled down to the little girl’s level.

“Yes, his name is Bagheera. Would you like to pet him?” Zoe asked, holding the cat out hesitantly.

Vitani ran a hand over the cat’s head and it purred, “He’s very beautiful, just like his mommy.”

Suddenly the little girl broke into a blinding grin and all shyness fell away, “Are you my grandma?”

“Yes, honey, I am.”

“Are you a vampire?”

“I am.”

Zoe looked back and forth between Vitani and Drake for a moment, “Did Drake turn you?”

“He did.”

“Oh… What do I call you?”

“Well, Doodlebug,” Hannibal interrupted, “Despite the fact that your grandmummy here is older than the pyramids, I don’t think anyone would really believe that she was your grandma…”

“You told him!” Vitani accused her father viciously.

“You never told him?”

“Of course not. He knew I was BC, but being before the pyramids open as whole new level of torture opportunities!”

“Anyway,” King said, “We’ll get back to the jokes and hilarity. Zoe, why don’t you just call her ‘Madrina’ since it means godmother in Spanish; I know she spent a lot of time in South America.”

“Okay. Are you going to watch our movie with us?”

Vitani looked at the two men, “Is that okay with you two?”

“Of course, let’s go. What are we watching Zoe?”

“Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost!”

As Drake was setting up the movie, Zoe turned to her grandmother, “Madrina, have you been in South America?”

“No hunny, I was in Miami, which is in Florida,” Vitani explained.

“Oh, when were you in South America?”

“Well, do you know what BC means?”

Zoe nodded, “Yes, Daddy explained to me once that BC meant ‘before Christ’ and AD meant ‘after death’.”

“Very good, well from 1000 BC to 500 BC, Drake and I were in South America with the Olmec people; they were the first true civilization in South America. Then we went back to Greece, where we had been in my early years, and from then to 400 BC, I got two new brothers,” Vitani explained.

“Yes, where are Alexander and Hephaistion?” Drake asked.

“WHAT!?” King shouted as he sat up enraged, “Your brother is Alexander the Great and you never told me? I wrote a paper on the man for the love of God! I could have had direct quotes!”

“No, you couldn’t have and you know that! Telling you would have enabled you to let something slip! That reminds me, please tell me you’re home schooling her!”

“Yeah,” King said, “I took your advice.”

Vitani snorted, “I suppose there is a first time for everything! And Alex is with Phai in Greece, having an aneurysm over them going broke. We shared blood right before I met Deacon, so we can still sense one another.”

“Anyway, honey, from 400 BC to 100 BC we came back to visit Egypt, where I’m from before returning to the Olmecs,” She reached over and grabbed Hannibal’s new smartphone that Jarko had gotten him. He’d gotten one for Drake too, but the man was learning about it little by little and it was making for some of the funniest shit King had ever seen.

“And then from 800 AD to 1200 AD, we stayed with the Maya civilization and they covered Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador; which are here, here, here, here, and here,” Vitani explained as she pointed to the map on the phone.

“Cool!” Zoe exclaimed, inching closer to the blonde in her excitement.

“Well, Drake and I split up after that and from 1200 to 1430 I stayed with the Aztec people in Mexico, they were pretty cool,” she said.

“Did your brother stay with you?” Zoe interrupted.

“No, he was too young, at least compared to us, so he had to stay with our dad, along with his mate, Phai. They went to the Middle East. I moved straight from the Aztecs to the Incas, in Peru, Bolivia, northern Argentina, Chile, and Ecuador, from 1435 to 1535,” Again she showed each modern area with a point to the screen.

“Why so short Mummy dearest?” Hannibal asked sarcastically.

Seeing Zoe’s scrunched eyebrows Vitani moved to answer, “In 1535 men from Spain, called conquistadors, came over and your Madrina got the hell out of there as quickly as she could.”

“Why didn’t you like them?”

“Because,” Drake answered instead, “We stayed in Egypt for less than a century after she was turned into a vampire, and then in 3000 AD we went to Greece, which is in Europe and had just begun to inhabit Troy and Athens.”

Zoe suddenly became excited, “Daddy read me a storybook on Troy, I didn’t like Helen, but Hector’s wife was really cool!”

“We stayed there for long enough to see how the Europeans were going to work and then went back to Vitani’s stomping ground in 2550 BC, to see the pyramids and protect Egypt from Europe because they were expanding so rapidly. Luckily they had it out with Asia instead of with your Madrina’s people,” Drake seemed to pause, “So when they came to South America we knew that it would just be more drama. I think that’s enough for today.”

“No!” Zoe shouted, “Please keep going!”

Drake looked over at Hannibal, “Do you think it’s too much?”

King looked at his daughter’s pleading eyes, “If she wants more of a history lesson, I’m not going to complain.”

Drake chuckled and sat down next to his mate, then tried to hide his shock when the man leaned into him, “Well, then the Celts started spreading in 2000 BC and we followed them around for a while, to make sure that they weren’t going to try anything stupid. When we returned to Egypt in 1800 the king angered me so I refused to protect them anymore; that is why the Hyksos’ invasion worked in 1720 and the newcomers weren’t driven out until 1567 BC.”

“Egypt became a war zone after that,” Vitani said, “And we went along for the ride; picking sides at random and…”

“Don’t get carried away; she doesn’t need details at her age,” Hannibal told her.

Vitani rolled her eyes, “I wasn’t going to get gory, take a chill pill. I raised you; I know what children can handle.”

“Just checking!”

“Anyway, The Trojan War that your daddy told you about happened in 1190, it was a bit of a family reunion, and then when the Israelite tribes joined in 1020, we started making plans to go elsewhere; David took over in 1000 and we decided to go a bit farther than we had before.”

“So you went across the whole ocean?!” Zoe demanded. “WOW! That is all so amazing! Can you fly?”

“We can, and very fast too.”

“Awesome!”

“Ready for your movie now?”

“Yeah, thank-you for telling me!” King smiled at his daughter. He had heard this story before, minus the uncle part and he always loved hearing it. He like each story that his mother told about previous times, they were amazing, and he was happy that his little girl was going to hear them as well.


	5. Chapter 5

The morning that King woke up not having to stay in bed or be confined all he could feel was earth shattering relief. Never in a million years would he have thought himself ready to help the Night Stalkers take out his mate, but after Drake became ‘stricter’ with his liberties, it had been a serious consideration on his part. His mother had told him that he was over reacting, but he’d said no; his over reaction was the idea of fucking Blade in their bed before letting the daywalker kill the first, that was an overreaction.

Zoe’s tutor was coming at noon and Hannibal had finally convinced Drake that he would be fine going to the park with Jarko, while he and his eldest childe decided the fate of the Talos siblings ‘with’ the council. Though he was considering getting a job, so that he wasn’t sitting around all day, King had decided to start with something small before trying to climb that mountain. That was the smarter decision as he moved to get ready.

It wasn’t until he got to the bathroom and mirror that something shiny caught his attention in the light. Looking down he realized that he was wearing a necklace. Obviously a gift from Drake, because the vampire didn’t let anyone but the family into their room.

Still blinking sleep from his eyes, King picked up the charm to inspect it, only to drop the snowflake like it had scalded him. It took a few minutes to slow his breathing, but finally he picked it up and turned the pendant over. Sure enough, ‘HF’ was engraved on the back.

The original vampire had gotten his necklace back.

He spent the morning with his little girl; they had breakfast, and did her independent work before the tutor arrived for that days’ lessons. Then, he went to find Jarko. All the time unable to think of anything but the charm beneath his shirt.

They went to the park and it was beautiful. The sun was out, and Jarko, who had been turned into a daywalker, by Drake, was caught up in the beauty of everything in the light. Although the animal lover did not have all the abilities as someone of Drake’s blood (shape shifting, distance mental invasion, controlling fire), the first vampire’s bite did give him more control over his mental abilities and the ability to walk in the sun.

After a while they started walking around the city, talking and just killing time. After an hour or so, King stopped and stared at a building that he hadn’t seen in over a decade. It took a moment for him to realize that his brother was talking to him.

“KING! What’s wrong with you, man?”

“Umm… nothing… nothing… I just realized where we are. There is a pizza place around the corner, I’m gonna grab something from there.”

“Oh, okay! Let’s go!”

As they approached the pizza place, King started to formulate a plan in his head. He needed to go into that building, but there was no way he’d let Jarko go with him; this wouldn’t be a fucking joke for his amusement. When they got outside the pizza place King stopped and looked in the window.

“Ahh fuck!”

“What’s wrong?”

“My fucking ex is in there! Damn, I haven’t had their pizza in forever!”

“I’ll go in and get it!” Jarko said with a shrug.

“You sure you don’t mind?” Hannibal asked as he moved to lean on the brick was closest to the building and out of the window’s eyesight.

“Nah man, I’ll be right back, cheese?”

“That’s fine.”

As soon as the door closed King moved to rush through the lunch crowd and down a half block, then down an alleyway. He used roofs to get to the alley closest to the building, then went back into the crowd to cover his scent. Ditching a fanger was a bit like muscle memory; one never forgot how.

The building was exactly the same and Hannibal wasn’t really surprised. His dad had the ‘human’ side of his business set up securely to run itself and he knew for a fact that the vampires had steered clear of anything with Deacon Frost’s name on it after his death. The club was probably gathering dust below the building as he walked to the elevator; luckily he wasn’t all that interested in the underground part of the building.

As the elevator rose he had a million thoughts flowing through his mind and not one of them held a second of worry for Jarko, whom he had ditched. The doors began to open and he stepped into the small hallway between the apartment’s door and the lift. Suddenly he felt like he was walking with Danica and Asher all over again, the same feeling of terror all but overtaking him.

On the left side of the door was a keypad with nine digits and with shaking his hands he reached up to put in the six digit passcode. 082376, it was his birthday, which had only been known by four people, not including himself. He was both elated and further terrified as a small green light lit up the otherwise dark corridor. 

Why had he come here again? Maybe it would be better if he just turned around and walked away.

Swallowing he reached down and turned the knob. Opening the door he felt every ounce of blood drain from his face and his heart was about to come completely out of his chest.

It was anticlimactic really. The door opened and it was as if nothing had changed. Obviously there was a cleaning crew still coming here, because there was no dust anywhere; it looked as if only a day had passed since the last time he’d walked through the doorway, not twelve years. The first step was the hardest, after that it was just a little easier.

He walked around, calming slightly as the adrenaline began to fade. He ran a hand over his brother’s stereo, and his sister’s magazines; one on appliances was still open to mini-refrigerators because he had wanted one for his bedroom. He ran a hand over the back of his father’s black leather chair. It was tempting to sit down, but that would have been going too far for him to handle and he knew it.

It took a few minutes but finally, when there was nothing else to look at, he turned to the far wall. Tears gathered in his eyes, memories of family events and a three year old little boy came flying back to him, as he reached for the button that sat there looking so very innocent, despite the pain it was causing him. It felt just like all the others of his situations’ many injustices, small but taunting all the same. He pressed it sharply then withdrew his hand like it had burned him; his reaction did nothing to stop the rubber ducks from rushing toward him like the real thing.

He couldn’t look at them for a moment. He tilted his head toward the ceiling and steeled himself against their innocently evil ways before kneeling next to the pool. Extending his right hand he picked up one of the little yellow menaces, which once gave him a sense of safety, peace, and home, but not anymore. Now all it gave him was pain, loss, and anger. He threw it back into the water and thrashed at the pool, sending water all over the floor to his left.

Shaking his head, Hannibal moved toward the stairs, still refusing to let the tears blinding his vision fall from his eyes. He went through his room, finding that all the things still there didn’t really mean anything to him anymore; it was all just stuff… Until he found a picture. It was of his family, all five of them. His dad had rented out a water park one night when he was eight as a surprise and they had taken the picture together at Vitani’s request, nee demand. 

He picked it up and slammed it down to the floor.

He moved back into the hall and slowly went further down. He’d been the only person allowed in Mercury’s room; all her designs and ideas were pinned to every wall and surface that would hold still. Quinn’s room was nothing but black walls, furniture, and bedding, as well as dirty magazines and a computer, no doubt filled with porn and other high tech crap he still wouldn’t understand. It was the last door that really scared him. He went in trying to convince himself to stop shaking, but it didn’t help.

Everything was still as white as the day his father designed the room. It looked as if absolutely nothing had changed and he was sure nothing really had. He moved toward the closet first, opening the door he knew what would happen, but still he was unprepared for how forcefully he was attacked by his dad’s scent; even as a human he could smell him like he was standing right there. 

Then he moved over to the desk, the famous Frost Laptop that decoded the ancient texts was sitting there like it hadn’t been the cause of everything. Like it wasn’t its entire fault that his father had tried to perform that ritual. How dare it?!

Angry he lifted the screen and turned it on. Luckily or unluckily, depending on how you look at it, his dad had left it plugged in. As the program recharged, the ritual began to show itself clearly on the screen, popping up just like he was sure it had done for his father. He flung it to the ground, outraged.

When he turned around he saw the square box in the middle of the room. Quietly he moved to the wall and flipped the switch. It began to work instantly and the lid lifted from the bed with practiced ease. Slowly he moved to the mattress and lay down on top of it. That’s when the dam broke and he could hold back no more. Tears began to fall from King freely; he’d promised, he’d lied, he’d left. Hannibal had been a new vampire, all but solely dependent on his sire, a time when he needed his father the most, and he’d left him!

Jarko came out of the pizza parlor, ready to congratulate his brother on laying the hot blonde inside before he became a claimed man, but he never got the chance. Even with his vampire sight it took him a moment to realize that Hannibal was nowhere to be seen. He had completely disappeared. 

In a panic he tried to smell the man’s scent but there were too many people around and the slight trail he did find ended a block away. If King had been taken he would be crucified and then eaten for dinner… After he’d starved for a few days.

Even with that grim thought in mind, he knew if he didn’t alert the king and King’s crazy ass mother, he’d answer to a far worse fate. Even if Hannibal was found safe and secure in the meantime.

“Hello?”

“Vitani, we’ve got a problem.”

“Oh god, what?”

“I lost King,” Jarko said, trying not to let his voice shake.

“WHAT!!?” Drake shouted from the background and Jarko immediately went to shrink away from the phone.

“Sire, calm down! I’m sure Jarko didn’t mean to and getting angry isn’t going to help anything. Knowing my son he ran off for some alone time!”

“Or he ran off to get away from me? How could he just leave Zoe?”

“Hold your tongue!!!” Vitani yelled at her father, she was the only person with that privilege other than the man’s parents, “You’re just talking crazy now, because you’re scared. He wouldn’t leave Zoe or you. Now either something happened to upset him and make him run off, or someone took him. Either way, you need to be calm to deal with it. Jarko?”

Not the champion the animal lover had been expecting, but he was not going to complain, “Yes, Vitani?”

“Where are you?”

“I’m not sure, I was following him.”

“Does your phone have GPS?”

“I can find him through the bite!” Drake growled.

“Fine, we’ll be there soon.”

Not even fifteen minutes later Jarko was joined by an enraged vampire king and his childe, who calmed the closer they came to the blonde muscled vampire.

“Now I see,” She said, “Come on, you two. Let’s go make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.”

“What are you talking about Vitani?” Drake growled.

She smiled sadly, “You’ll see.”

Drake stayed confused until Vitani put the passcode in for the door and opened it to reveal the apartment from King’s memories. They had left Jarko in the lobby and his anger melted away quickly because he understood why Hannibal would not have wanted the blonde here for this. He noted the wet floor near the pool but otherwise the room was in perfect condition.

Vitani shook her head; Hannibal should never have come here alone. As she looked around she took in the sight of the pool and then sunk into her mate’s chair. His scent was everywhere, all around her in that moment, and she freely let the tears fall from her eyes. Drake placed a hand on her shoulder and it spurred her into action.

She took the stairs two at a time and moved to her son’s room. Though he wasn’t inside, it was obvious he had been, if the broken picture was anything to go by. She left the room without looking at the picture, more focused on finding her son. 

Drake however stepped over to the pile of glass, as he carefully picked the captured memory up. He was not surprised to see his mate’s family surrounding him. He put the picture into his pocket for safe keeping; perhaps after this was over Hannibal would like to keep it.

Vitani moved straight to her and Deacon’s room. Something told her that would be where Hannibal ended up; it was hard to imagine him anywhere else. Opening the door proved her right, he was sitting on the edge of the bed, head in his hands.

Kneeling on the floor in front of him, she pulled his hands away and made him look at her, “Doodlebug, what were you thinking? Why didn’t you call me?”

“I don’t know; I couldn’t have thought straight if I tried at the time. How do I forget about him?”

“You can’t; haven’t you learned that yet?”

“I go from loving him to hating him so fast! Sometime I swear if he was standing in front of me, I’d fall into his arms and other times I swear I’d kill him all over again.”

Vitani laughed shortly, “I’m no better, little prince. It’s not wrong to feel that way either. You might get the chance sooner than you think.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing, sweetie, nothing… Now’s not the time to go into it and it would only confuse you. It would make your feelings go even more haywire. You need to focus on forgiving him and then forgiving yourself; grudges and guilt do nothing but eat at us, and us alone.”

“… I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too, little prince.”

It was a week later that Drake came into Zoe’s bedroom to a beautiful sight. His daughter was sitting in his mate’s lap, looking at furniture and colors, with her Madrina. She had finally decided that her colors were going to be lavender and white, one from both of her grandparents; now she just had to find furniture and bedding in those colors. King was trying to keep Fluffy and Baggy from killing one another, as they sat on both sides of him, but neither of the girls moved to help.

“Fluffy!” Drake said, loud enough to scare the hell out of the dog and make it stop going after his daughter’s cat. Then he turned to Vitani, “I need to talk to you.”

Vitani looked from him to Zoe quickly, “Get your daddy to help you decide, Lady Bug, I’ll be right back.”

Once they were safely across the hall, Drake turned to his daughter, “The full moon is in a week.”

“I’m aware of that.”

“Don’t we need to tell King what’s going to happen, before I access the portal between the worlds?”

Vitani scrutinized him, “No. He just forgave himself and Deacon, trying to explain all of this to him would only make him relapse.”

“And seeing his father won’t?”

“It’ll push him into acceptance; we can’t do this by half measures.”

“All right; what about your brother?”

“He said he’d be here in a couple of weeks. Hopefully by the time he gets here, we’ll have had time to settle from everything, then we can move on the council as a family.”

“Is Hephaistion coming with him?”

“Of course, those two do everything together. Plus, everyone wants to meet Zoe.”

“Yes,” Drake had to roll his eyes, “How do you expect me to explain to your grandmother why she hasn’t gotten to mean her favorite granddaughter’s child or grandchild?”

“Easy! You went to sleep and only you can access the portal!”

“Ahh, so it’s my entire fault?”

“Of course!”

Drake looked through her smiles and jokes, “I know I’ve been worried about Hannibal’s reaction a lot, but you are my daughter. I do care how this is affecting you.”

“I’m fine, sire. If anything I’m excited and maybe a bit nervous.”

“He’s your mate.”

“Yes… but now he’s met my ‘extended family’.”

“Give your grandmother some credit; she won’t let the old man do anything.”

“The ‘old man’ as you call him, is a lot craftier than you give him credit for. Sometime I think you guys forget who you’re dealing with and that you have to get it from somewhere!”

“Perhaps, but I know that he would never risk having to deal with your grandma; he makes it a point never to deal with your grandma.”

Vitani giggled, then became serious, “Do you really think that he’s okay?”

Drake nodded, “I do, your grandfather has always had one eye on you. It’s one of his many talents, I’m sure he’s looked after your mate,”

“Always? That might make things a little awkward.”

Drake rolled his eyes, “I love you, Princess.”

“I love you too, sire.”

At midnight a week later, Drake was on the roof of the building and shifting into his other form so that he could access his parent’s magic. Vitani was downstairs trying very hard not to let on that something was up, but her feelings were beginning to show before he left and he wasn’t sure how much longer she would hold up.

Under the light of the full moon he used his family magic to open a portal between earth and the underworld; it was a portal that only six people in the whole world could access. It was a swirling vortex of blue, black, and red. As he stepped through it he felt, even though he was a vampire, that it would suffocate him. The journey between his home and his parent’s was relatively short, but that didn’t stop him from feeling a small sense of dread.

“Well, well, well, look who finally decided to get his lazy carcass up!”

Drake flinched slightly, but didn’t back away from his father. He really shouldn’t be surprised that he’d landed in the middle of the man’s private study, nor that everyone he’d come to talk about was already there.

“Now, Lucifer, we agreed that we weren’t going to give him a hard time.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

“Oh, so you do still remember me! How nice, I was sure by now you’d forgotten who I was.”

Lucifer chuckled, “I thought we weren’t going to give him a hard time.”

The man got serious as his wife glared at him and rose, hugging his second eldest briefly, “Well, you might as well get to know everyone before you whisk them back to earth. Drake, this is Deacon Frost, Deacon, this is Vitani’s sire and your son’s mate.”

Deacon chuckled, “If you’re trying to get me to turn on him, it won’t work.”

“Of course it won’t,” Drake’s mother said as she kissed Deacon and ruffled his hair, “Because you’re such a good boy!”

Drake and Lucifer rolled their eyes before giving each other a look while shuddering, “They’ve bonded; I believe that Deacon will still be your mother’s high priest on earth when you return.”

“Of course he will! Now, Drake, this is Quinn, Hannibal’s brother, and Mercury, his sister. I expect you to take extra special care of my little girl here.”

“I’m going to miss you Lilith!” Mercury said, hugging the Queen of the Underworld. Drake wasn’t really surprised to see his mother return it like the doting grandmother she’d obviously become in the last decade; at least toward her new family.

“Oh you’ll see me soon! Drake will be bringing the whole family back for All Hallow’s Eve.”

“I don’t recall agreeing to that,” Drake grumbled.

“What was that?!”

“Nothing, Mother! We’ll see you then.”

“That’s what I thought. Bad enough I didn’t get to meet my great grandson, but now he’s had a little girl.”

Deacon got a little misty eyed, “I can’t believe I have a granddaughter.”

“Well,” Lilith told them, “You all better get moving; Black Heart is supposed to be coming by later.”

Drake was shocked to see all three vampires start moving toward him quickly, not that he was really surprised after the thought about it. His big brother was… a character, to say the least. He kissed his mother good-bye and hugged his father; this trip had been less guilt ridden then he expected, but perhaps Deacon and his childer had been a good influence on his parents.

They landed on the rooftop of the Talos’ building and Drake shifted back to his human form. He realized suddenly that the Frost family hadn’t seemed very disturbed by his demon form. He looked at Deacon again and the man was giving him a look of judgement; this was the first time in five millennia that Drake had felt worry over what someone, other than his mate, had thought of him. Vitani had been the last person for which he cared, but this man was her mate and his own mate’s father; this man was the only person he was sure that Hannibal would leave him for, if approval wasn’t gained.

Finally the man moved to speak, “Thank-you, for coming to get us.”

This caught the first vampire off guard, “Of course,” he said finally.

“So where’s my little bro?” Quinn asked looking around.

“He’s downstairs with your niece,” Vitani said from the stairwell. 

Deacon moved with vampire speed to pin his wife against the wall and devour her mouth hungrily. Twelve years, 144 months, 4.380 days, 105.120 hours, 6.307.200 minutes, 378.432.000 seconds too long, since she had last been in his arms and he needed to feel her; to know that she was still his above all others.

After a few moments Quinn couldn’t stop himself, “You know, your kids might like to see their mom too!”

Mercury slapped the back of her brother’s head so hard that he saw stars and the people 30 stories below could hear the crack.

“Thank-you, Mercury,” Deacon muttered, even as he took a step back from his wife and allowed his children to snuggle up to the woman in a hug that would have tackled most vampires.

Vitani tried hard to fight the tears but just feeling Deacon’s lips on hers had relieved pains that she wasn’t even aware she was feeling after so long away from him. Though she was so grateful to see her two vampire children, she was reluctant to let her husband back away. Once she had hugged the two she moved back to Deacon, taking his hand, and immediately it helped her think clearly.

“Maybe you should go down there first, Zoe’s already gone to bed, so Hanni will be alone.”

Deacon nodded, “Yeah, maybe you’re right; will you guys be okay with that?”

Quinn shrugged his indifference and Mercury responded by ducking back into his wife’s arms. The blonde might have loved Lilith, but she’d always been a Mama’s girl to the bone, and he knew she was relieved to be out of the confinement of hell’s palace. Really, this had been the easy part of coming back from the dead. 

Dealing with his son, now there was the hard part. Deacon was more than aware of how much he’d hurt his son; Lucifer had finally broken down and told him what had happened with the Talos siblings five years ago. Zoe had been two at the time and when the devil had let slip that he had a granddaughter; Deacon had managed to drag the story out of him.

Carefully he went down the small stairs that led from the roof to the top floor when he arrived and took a calming breath. There were two scents at the end of the hall; one was fresh, like daisies and lemons, probably Zoe, and the other was masculine, like musk and red wine, which was definitely his son. Moving toward the door he gave himself a pep talk; if he could take on the council he could face his little boy.

When the door opened Hannibal looked up expecting Drake, who hadn’t returned from his meeting yet. Seeing those blue eyes made him freeze and start backing away, his heart pounding so rapidly that he thought for a second he would pass out.

“Don’t start having a panic attack, kiddo. You know I’d never hurt you,” Deacon said, thinking that his son was scared of him for some reason.

“You’re dead.”

“I was… Drake brought me back; brought all of us back. Mercury and Quinn are up on the roof.”

Deacon reached out to touch his son but the boy backed away further, “Wanna tell me how the fuck he managed that!”

“His father is the devil, himself, Lucifer, and his mother, Lilith, or La Magra. They pulled us before we reached the gates of hell and kept us safe in the palace until Drake came to get us.”

“Why didn’t he do it before now?” Hannibal growled angrily.

“Shh, he only has access to the Underworld every full moon. This was the first one that he knew about us, so he came.”

“It’s really you.”

“Yeah, Hanni, it’s me.”

Suddenly Hannibal’s fist connected with his father’s face, busting his lip despite the man’s vampirism. Before Deacon could even turn back to his little boy, much less acknowledge that he’d deserved that right hook, Hannibal had all but tackled him in a crushing hug, crying and trembling as he held on for dear life. He just grabbed the boy up in his arms instead.

“Hey, breathe, breathe. It’s all okay, just let it out,” Deacon said, brushing the hair out of his son’s face with one hand and pulling him closer with the other.

“Don’t you ever fucking do that to me again!”

“Never!”

Ten minutes later they were walking onto the roof to rejoin the rest of the family. Quinn tackled his little brother and they wrestled on the ground before ending up in a laughter filled embrace before anyone could get hurt. Deacon wrapped his arms around Vitani, who was standing next to Drake. The first vampire was sitting on the side of the building, watching his mate reunite with his family.

He found, while Deacon was gone, that both Quinn and Mercury were very insightful and knowledgeable about the inner workings of the vampire world. They had not tried to lie to him however, if they didn’t know they had openly admitted that he would be better off talking to their father. It was not difficult to see that his daughter had chosen her mate, and by extension, her children very well.

Mercury ran to King as he moved to stand, “Boyfriend!!!!”

“Merc!” Hannibal shouted, picking his sister up and spinning her around, “Sis, you gotta help. Zoe needs her room decorated and me and Mom are hopeless!”

“Oh my god, do I get to meet my niece?”

“In the morning,” King told her.

“Ahh!”

“No, she needs to sleep.”

“FINE!” Mercury said with a fake attitude, stealing another hug from her baby brother, who, though he had towered over her by a foot before, now had the attitude to match.

“She’s not the only one who needs her beauty sleep,” Quinn said with a yawn. They had been up for two days because no one knew exactly when Drake was coming, since they didn’t know where he was, or when he’d be under the full moon.

Deacon was sleeping in Vitani’s room, which was down the hall from Zoe’s, and after several crude jokes from Hannibal and Quinn about how much ‘sleep’ they were going to get, they had disappeared with a ‘goodnight’. Quinn and Mercury were sharing a Jack N Jill suite down the hall from Drake and Hannibal’s room. Drake preferred to have his family all in one place; he’d have to figure out where to put Alex and Hephaistion when they showed up.


	6. Chapter 6

The next morning Zoe woke up late. She was surprised that no one had woken her up for her lessons that day, but wasn’t willing to risk her luck since it was Wednesday. She was rubbing sleep from her eyes as she headed down the hall, when she bumped into something and fell down. Looking up she scrambled away, seeing a strange vampire standing on her family’s floor. He was big, but not like Jarko, he had dark blonde hair and a scruffy beard.

“Hey there, kid!”

Zoe backed away further when he tried to reach for her. She was ready to run for Drake and Hannibal’s room, but was so focused on the new vampire that she didn’t notice someone opening the door across from them.

“Quinn, stop scaring her!” Another new vampire growled before turning to face Zoe. He had very pretty blue eyes and went down on one knee, holding his hands up in a way she knew meant ‘I don’t want to hurt you’, “You must be Zoe.”

She nodded shyly, still keeping a wary eye on the other vampire.

“Are you worried about Quinn? Don’t worry, I won’t let him hurt you, he’s a big idiot anyway!”

“Hey!” the vampire cried in outrage.

Zoe laughed and stepped closer to this nice vampire, he seemed playful enough. He reminded her of her daddy, “Who are you?”

“Well, my name is Deacon…” he watched as realization dawned in the little girl’s eyes.

“You’re my granddad!” Zoe said as she ran and threw her arms around the man’s neck.

Deacon grinned broadly and wrapped his arms around the little girl, picking her up as he rose, “That’s right! What a smart girl!”

“My daddy’s missed you!”

“I’ve missed him too, Lady Bug,” Deacon said, “This oversized idiot is your Uncle Quinn, he’s not nearly as scary as he looks.”

“Hi!” Zoe muttered, hiding her head in her grandfather’s shoulder.

“Hey why don’t you give him a hug, maybe he’ll seem less scary then?”

Zoe reached her arms out to give Quinn a hug, which the man accepted like a little kid instead of a century old vampire.

The door behind Quinn opened and Mercury walked out in excitement, she knew she’d heard her niece’s voice, “And this Zoe, this is your Aunt Mercury, your daddy’s going to have her help you with your room.”

Zoe, in her excitement, reached out for Mercury. The vampiress took her from her sire quickly. The girls started talking about everything they could do with lavender and white, as they moved toward the kitchen to get the little girl’s breakfast.

“Instant bond!” Quinn said, a little jealous and put out.

“Instant trouble,” Deacon corrected him.

By the time King woke up and went downstairs, Zoe was sitting in his father’s lap, eating breakfast and talking to Mercury, who was across the table. He stood watching them for a moment, a sense of peace he hadn’t felt for many years coming over him. In his contentment, he didn’t notice Quinn turning to face him.

“Damn, baby brother’s got some extra muscle since he became human again!”

Everyone turned to look at King, who was shirtless, with sleeping pants that rode extremely low on his hips. He blushed but was grateful that no one had commented on him consummating his relationship with Drake the previous night.

“Dang Boyfriend, that V of yours makes me wanna…”

“Hey!” King said, moving his eyes to Zoe in warning.

Mercury sighed and leaned toward her niece, “Your ruining my sex talk already, kid!”

Zoe giggled and pointed to the bed that she wanted.

Once Drake, Vitani, and Jarko joined them, everyone sat down to talk business while Zoe went to her lessons, though she objected to having to do since she normally had them in the morning. They all knew that Deacon had a point, trying to take out the council, as did Hannibal when he joined the Nightstalkers. If vampires were allowed to continue in their self-degradation, then soon they would be as weak, if not weaker, than the humans that were fighting them.

“How are we going to exterminate them? One at a time will rouse talk, as will attacking covens, since it will leave room for escape,” Vitani laid out for them.

“We have to lure them in somehow, get them all in one place!” Mercury told her mother.

“What about reopening the clubs?” Deacon asked, earning everyone's attention, “We could lock it down and send the place up in UV light and silver thru the air ducts. It draws in big numbers, in both vampires and their loud mouth familiars, as well as Blade.”

Hannibal laughed, “Daddy, can I be the one to tell Blade you’re alive?” he asked in a sickly sweet voice.

“Sorry, kiddo, that’s a meeting I’ll take pleasure in doing personally!”

“Won’t he know when you reopen the clubs?” Quinn asked.

Vitani shook her head, “I’ll do the reopening. You three are going to lay low for now. There is only one council for the Americas, and it will be fairly simple to take them out, and then start killing the vampires in the clubs. We know virtually nothing about how vampires are run in Europe, Asia, and Australia. We’ll need to get everything set up before we put this plan into motion.”

“What do you mean?” Jarko asked.

“I mean that other continents will be suspicious, if the entire vampire population in America suddenly disappears. We need to be prepared to put this plan into motion and take out all the governments within days of each other.”

“What happens to the vampires that aren’t part of the government over there?” Quinn asked.

“We’ll open clubs over there too,” Deacon told him, “When Drake feels the vampire population is desperate, we’ll trick them into a meeting and depending on what he sees among them; either they can become daywalkers like Jarko or we’ll pull an April Fools Day.”

“Well it’s February 17th, what kind of timeline are we looking at?” Drake asked his daughter and son-in-law. He knew that they had already talked about this and he trusted any plan his critically detailed daughter helped come up with.

“Deacon has clubs all over the Americas, getting them cleaned and stocked should only take a month, at most. From mid-March to the end of July, four and a half months, we’ll be setting up clubs on the other continents. When we open the clubs in the beginning of August, we need you to have meetings with all the government figures of our world.”

Drake snorted, “What, pray tell, am I going to tell them to get them to agree to meeting me, back to back?”

“The truth,” Hannibal said, as he began to understand where his parents were going with this, “Tell them you want to meet with them to figure out if they can be trusted to be loyal to you and govern your descendants. They will be as welcoming to you as Danica and Asher were.”

Vitani hissed at the mention of the Talos siblings, “I think that it would be a good idea to open the clubs the day after the meetings end. Vampires today don’t like authority; they’ll want to celebrate their new freedoms! We should be finished with most of the vampires by September and we’ll offer the meeting. It’ll be over by October first.”

“I’ll get Alex and Phai to go to the meetings with me; I’d rather all of you be getting ready for the clubs. How are we going to be all over the world at once?”

“I’ve got that part!” Quinn said, “There is a satellite I had put into orbit a long time ago. We’ll use it to connect all the clubs and then I’ll have technology analyze how many vampires and familiars are in each club. Since we have to lay low, the three of us will monitor the data and when each club is at, or close to, its majority, we’ll light the places up like Christmas Trees.”

Deacon shook his head, for all Quinn’s bravado, he was really a computer geek deep down, “Will you be able to do that from here?”

“I could do it from the apartment!”

“Alright, I’ve never really liked the term apartment!” King said, “The place has ten bedrooms!”

Drake looked at his mate, “There were?”

“Yeah, you didn’t see the downstairs below the living area and its five bedrooms.”

Indeed, Drake had not noticed that there were stairs going down, “Would it be acceptable for us to all stay there?”

There had been four attacks on Jarko in the last few weeks; people who were still loyal to Danica had been trying to take the man out and it would be nice if they could all stay in one place, to keep their new coven safe.

“I certainly don’t have a problem with that; we’ll just have to change the address on Zoe’s shipments.”

King practically collapsed onto the table, “Thank-GOD!”

Deacon laughed, “I had a feeling you wouldn’t want to be here much longer.”

Suddenly Drake realized that he had been staying in the place that his mate was held captive for five years; no wonder the man hadn’t wanted to move forward in their relationship. Though he felt guilty, he stored it to deal with later.

“Perhaps it would be better to move today, that way we can start working on this plan tomorrow.”

They were all about to move when a loud bang came from the stairwell, then suddenly Bagheera came flying through the door, Fluffy hot on his heels. In an aerial like move, Baggy jumped on the table at full speed, and as he was sliding down, turned to face Fluffy who had followed him. With a cat’s grace the feline slid into Drake’s lap before hissing at the dog, who rushed to put on the brakes.

“Whoa, Ninja Kitty, take it easy now!” Hannibal said as he put Fluffy back on the floor and everyone started to move.

Time seemed to fly by after that. Drake learned more and more rapidly about the new world surrounding him and by the time Alexander and Hephaistion joined them he was completely fluent in how to use the electronics at his disposal. 

The trio left for Tokyo a week after the clubs were finalized for action, so they could start their meetings with the vampire ‘lords’. Phai had been kind enough to arrange the meetings since he and Alex had done so much traveling and, because of their age, held quite a bit of influence in the community still.

Vitani and Mercury were exhausted from working both at home and in the field to get the clubs ready to throw down and become extermination houses. They had to gut and rebuild almost all of the clubs, so that was enough to keep them busy, but then they had to deal with decorating the clubs to look real and making sure the weapons were unnoticeable in both their placement within the clubs and their shipment to each of the locations. It was fortunate that Deacon’s businesses were self-running and every time the accounts reached a certain amount, they broke off into smaller accounts, so finances weren’t an issue.

Deacon and Quinn were going stir crazy as the Trio of Ancient Vampires started their massacre around the globe. Vitani distracted the American Council so that they didn’t catch wind of the murders and, although it took longer than the caged vampire would have liked, soon the three were on their way back, with only one council left to kill.

Hannibal and Jarko weren’t much better than the other two men, although their sentence was relatively shorter. Since it wouldn’t be a shock after the battle was lost to see Hannibal as a vampire, though this time it was by Drake’s blood and not his father’s bite, he and the blonde were going to be Vitani’s guards after the clubs re-opening. They were going to stay at the club under the apartment and the night Blade came after her, Deacon was going to make his grand debut.

The clubs worked splendidly. Vampires were dying at an alarmingly fast rate and it looked like their plan would be complete sooner than they thought. Deaths weren’t the only thing moving faster than planned and by September Blade had come to call.

It started out as another night. The sun went down and the club opened, when the room was half full Vitani went down, flanked by her son and his brother. They went to the middle of the dance floor and began to move with the crowd. It was about an hour later that a UV bomb was sent into the crowd, taking only ten vampires with it. Many would have been able to escape but when Deacon saw Blade penetrate the club’s security wall he shut them all in.

The vampires, thinking that the wall was to close the Daywalker in, tried to turn on him. Vitani, Hannibal, and Jarko sat at the bar calmly while Blade hacked through a small portion of the vampires. When they finally stopped trying to attack him, Blade continued to circle with his sword.

The sound of clapping from the doorway drew Blade’s attention and when he looked up King had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. His father smirked from the entryway before jumping the fifty feet from his position to Blade’s, going over all the vampires and ignoring their shocked faces.

“What, no hello? Come on, Blade, I know you’ve missed me!” Deacon said as he walked circles around the Daywalker.

“You’re dead!” Blade cried in outrage.

“Not quite, my connections run a bit deeper than you’d think. Thanks for your help tonight, but we had the fun covered!”

“I’d never help you!”

“Fine, just stand there and look like the ugly fuck face you are, then!”

Suddenly the UV lights above kicked in and every single one of the trapped vampires burst into flames. Deacon smiled at his son and the boy practically vibrated in excitement, when he looked back up he saw Blade glare at the two of them, “Oh Blade, I’m sorry. I thought you already knew my son, Hannibal.”

“Once a fanger, always a fanger! You lied to all of them, tricked them.”

Hannibal smirked, “Not really! When I joined up with them I really didn’t want to be a vampire and I really was looking to kill them; only one of those has changed.”

Suddenly Blade lunged at the boy, only to be shoved back by Drake, who had appeared behind the Daywalker, with Quinn, Mercury, Alexander, and Hephaistion. Realizing that he was surrounded Blade seemed to analyze all of them, before settling on Quinn and Mercury.

“You kept them out of here; they still can’t walk in the sun!” Blade said as he threw another UV bomb toward Deacons childer. He rolled his eyes as the two played hot potato like five year olds, before Mercury threw it above their heads and as it exploded, but nothing happened.

“Sorry Blade but you’re not getting your hands on any of my kids,” Deacon told him.

“You have two options, Daywalker,” Drake told him, “Become one of us or perish.”

“I’ll never be one of you!”

“So mote it be,” Drake said.

The two attacked each other and the entire family tensed up. It would be almost impossible for Blade to kill Drake, but they were all worried about something happening to the king. The two battled for a while before Blade began to tire, it was in his exhaustion that he suddenly changed targets.

It appeared the man thought that if he was going to be killed, he was going to at least take Deacon with him. The High Priest of La Magra was not prepared for the attack, but he was even less prepared for his son to tackle Blade instead of letting the Daywalker reach him, “HANNIBAL!”

To everyone’s shock it was over almost as quickly as it had begun. One second Hannibal was rolling on top of the half-vampire and the next he was holding the man’s throat in his hand. It was finished.

Vitani threatened to put him over her knee for the rest of the night.

On All Hallows Eve the group gathered on the roof of Deacon’s apartment (King still disagreed with calling it that) and prepared for the journey to Hell’s palace. Lilith and Lucifer were excited to see them, according to Drake, who had traveled to the underworld every full moon since his trip to retrieve the three vampires. Neither the King nor Queen of Hell were allowed to leave their domain, which is why they had their children do most of their work for them.

Drake had four brothers and a sister. The order of the ‘devil’s spawn’ went: Blackheart, Hecate, Drake, Balthazar, Azazel, and Rider. While all the children were close, they tended to pair off into twos, Drake’s other half was his sister Hecate, who had also come to live with them in the coven. It had come to pass that she was Jarko’s mate, and they were both quite smitten with each other, much to Zoe’s blatant disgust; of course she thought they were all disgusting because they were in relationships.

Hecate had gone to the palace early to ensure that everything was in order and when they arrived in the ballroom it appeared that her work had paid off. The entire room was covered in decorations, some scary and some not. Drake was worried that Zoe might get scared but over the last few months the girl had come to know that she was protected by the biggest, baddest things on earth. Even Drake’s eclectic brother, Blackheart, had taken a special shine to the young girl and was determined to protect her.

The party was in full swing by the time they got there. Lilith grabbed her new granddaughter as soon as introductions were made and pulled her to the dance floor, followed closely by Hecate and Jarko. Mercury had decided to borrow Hannibal, and Deacon was with Vitani, both pairs dance at a more adult pace then the group with the grandma and her new little one. 

Though Vitani was Zoe’s grandmother, she had taken a role closer to mother then grandmother, so it was only natural that Lilith would take over as grandma.

A deal had been reached in reference to the Daywalker, Blade. His soul had been handed over because he had killed the mate of someone in the royal family. Attacking one of such value was punishable by death and that was known by all supernatural beings. The fact that so many did not know was a product of the watering down of many supernatural creatures; one of which his son had seen personally.

Of course, the Daywalker’s soul hadn’t been the only one that was wanted viciously by the underworld; it had just been the only one of dispute. The House of Talos had been kept in the palace’s personal dungeon for a merry few months, after his son had finally finished with them, as well as Deacon… and Vitani… and Mercury… and Quinn… and of course Lilith had wanted her voice heard in the matter. Yes, they hadn’t fared very well in recourse of their crimes. Only a person who dared to harm Zoe would ever fare worse than them.

Partners changed many times throughout the night, Drake even danced with Hannibal several times, despite his lack of talent. Zoe, despite her true exclaims not to be tired, was sent to bed around two, however it was more for her protection than anything else. It was around this time that demons started to get a bit raunchy despite Lucifer’s presence.

Although the family couldn’t access the portal after the moon fell, it had already been decided that they would stay in the Underworld for a month. Lilith was so excited to get to know both her grandson and granddaughter that she’d practically been bouncing from the walls all day.

By 2:30 Drake was talking to his brothers at the bar, with something green lying between them. They were laying bets on which demon would get drunk and piss him off tonight; he was sure of it. Yes, as Lucifer looked out over his family he was sure of it; life was good.


End file.
